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Topics in Early Modern History: Renaissance

Every era seems to have a place where things are happening. From Florence during the Italian Renaissance to Shakespeare’s London or the court of Louis XIV at Versailles, the history of the Early Modern Era is full of places where people, events, and ideas sparked the birth of our own modern world. As a window into the period between 1350 and 1700, this course seeks to identify the places, personalities, ideas, and events that shaped the path we traveled to our modern existence.

• How did we become people who view the arts and artists as a measure of our humanity?
• How did exploration and conquest set the stage for relationships between Europe and the 
rest of the world that still echo in today’s international relations?
• How did the increasing divide between the countryside and the city begin to influence our 
political and social structures?
• How did science and the sharing of knowledge set Europe on the path towards a dramatic 
shift in our understanding of who we are and how we fit into the world and the universe? 

We will find answers to these questions by examining biographies, works of art and science,  maps, letters, and plays of the people who lived in these Early Modern societies. This course will include visits to Special Collections in the Norlin Library and hands-on opportunities to act as  “historical detectives” uncovering the past

Arts & Sciences Gen Ed: Arts & Humanities
3 credit hours