Winter Quarter, 2023
Tuesdays, 9:30-11:00 a.m.
The Age of Revolutions: The Birth of Modern Politics, 1789-1848
Robin Bates, Assistant Professor of Instruction, History
Why do revolutions start? What factors make them succeed or fail? How have people sought to unleash and seize control of massive historical change – or, less grandly, simply tried to survive it? We will consider these questions as we examine the era of modern revolutions, beginning with the outbreak of the interlinked French, Haitian, and American Revolutions of the late 1700s, then following their decades-long aftershocks as a wave of revolutions swept the globe from Europe to Latin America to the Middle East. This cascade of dramatic struggles between democracy and aristocracy, freedom and slavery, independence and colonialism, created a new world order as well as key components of our ongoing social reality: socialism, capitalism, liberalism, conservatism, terrorism, and perhaps most importantly revolution itself, an eruption of sudden and epochal social transformation, which has electrified but also terrified people ever since.
NOTE: Alumnae Continuing Education Parking and Busing for Winter 2023 has been cancelled due to a low level of interest in the busing option.
Busing will NOT be offered Winter 2023 quarter. We apologize for the inconvenience.
See Course Documents below for a reading list.