Students will receive an introduction to the course aims, structure and methods of assessment.

What can we achieve when we study history and attempt historical research? Using a discussion of E.H. Carr's famous theories as a starting point, we will debate the nature of historical facts and the question of objectivity.

Lecture: This module looks at the political and social condition of Europe at the start of the 16th century, beginning by pondering what traction the term ‘citizen’ would have had in the Europe of c1500. We will go from there to considering what kind of states we can encounter in early modern Europe, and how this linked to prevailing social patterns and norms.

Seminar Session: We will have a discussion on the Italian Renaissance, based on the Merriman chapter, including considerations of how to define the Renaissance, humanism and the concept of the individual.

Lecture: Why did religion play such a central role in the lives of Europeans in the sixteenth century? This preliminary discussion serves as a broad introduction to the world of Reformation and Counter-Reformation.

Seminar Session: We discuss Luther’s challenge to the Catholic Church from 1517, and begin to trace its various repercussions throughout the continent.

Seminar Session: This session is devoted to discussing the era of religious war which rocked Europe from the later sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth centuries. We will also consider the ramifications of all this for the state in Europe, particularly in France, which lurched from being a ‘failed state’ to an effective and powerful ‘absolutist’ one. We carry on with our chapter and questions from the previous session - Merriman ch. 3.

Lecture: This session explores the origins and course of the Thirty Years War, a conflict which can be seen as the climax of the Reformation divisions, but also as the portal to the intellectual and philosophical Age of Reason.

Group Presentation: Group A will present and lead a discussion on ‘The “Rise of the West”’, beginning with a 30-45-minute presentation. The group will base their presentation on the readings on this issue found in the ‘Resources’ section of the course page. Other students are expected to read at least some of this material (preferably all) and be prepared to discuss the group’s ideas and interpretations from an informed position.

Lecture Session: The unit looks at the rise of the absolutist state in much of Europe including Russia, contrasting this particular form of early ‘modernity’ with the Dutch Republic and the limited monarchy of Great Britain. The intellectual revolution known as the Enlightenment is introduced.

Seminar Session: This module looks at how a political reform movement in France turned that country into creative, idealistic and bloody turmoil. We will debate rival ways of interpreting the era.

Lecture: this session discusses the impact of the French Revolution on the rest of the continent, with a particular emphasis on the Napoleonic wars. The ideological legacy of liberalism, nationalism, socialism and conservatism is explored.

Lecture Session: We discuss the Industrial Revolution – among the most formative processes in European history. We consider why it was that Britain was the first country to industrialise.

Group B will present and lead a discussion ‘The French Revolution and Women’s Rights’. The format and requirements are the same as the previous group presentation.

Group Presentation: Group C will present and lead a discussion on ‘The Industrial Revolution and Living Standards’.

Lecture Session: The unit examines the 19th century in the context of the struggle between progressive/revolutionary and conservative/reactionary forces and social groups. The central, dramatic focus of attention is the 1848 ‘spring of nations’. We will also consider the strange hybrid of authoritarianism (including so-called patriarchy) and liberalism that characterized European states in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Lecture Session: Europe at the turn of the twentieth century is fascinating not only because it was going through enormous and rapid change – much of it in the wake of the so-called Second Industrial Revolution – but also because this dynamic and outwardly successful civilization was on the verge of the great calamity that was the First World War.

Seminar Session: The First World War was a decisive watershed in the history of European civilization. In its wake, revolutions of the Left and the Right took place; four empires fell; new nations rose in their place, and old nations ‘reappeared’ on the map. The session looks at the major causes and the course of the First World War.

Lecture Session: How can we understand and evaluate the peace-making attempts that took place at Paris in 1919? This lecture offers a way to appraise the flawed settlements concluded by the peacemakers at Paris.

Seminar Session: A group discussion on how the Great War helped stimulate the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the turbulent path taken by Russia as it morphed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Lecture Session: This module looks at the extremism which came to dominate European political, economic and social life in the 1920s and 1930s, and considers the chief reasons for the breakdown of the Versailles System by 1939.

Group D will present and lead a discussion on ‘The Legacy of World War I in Germany’, examining the relationship between defeat in the Great War and the later rise of extremism, including Nazism in that country. The format and requirements are the same as for previous group presentations.

Seminar Session: This discussion looks at the causes, course and consequences of the most devastating conflict in human, including a consideration of the Holocaust and the morality of Allied victory.

Lecture Session: Was the Second World War simply a continuation of the First? We debate the question.

Lecture Session on the Cold War era. How different were the two sides of the Iron Curtain in Europe?

Group E will present and lead a discussion on ‘The Soviet Union: Empire or Anomaly?’ The format and requirements are the same as for previous presentations.

Lecture Session: we discuss the challenges experienced by the states and peoples of Europe since 1989, and will seek to evaluate how successfully Europe transitioned from the Cold War world to an era of globablisation.

Students will submit their essays. Can we conclude our course with a sense of ‘closure’ or is it more a question of confusion? This is the deadline for submissions of essays: either for students submitting for the first time or for those re-submitting.