HIST 2085

The Enlightenment: The Birth of Modern Thought

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

Until the 18th century, criminals and heretics were tortured and killed before large crowds of spectators, Jews and other outcasts were required to wear special badges and segregated from the rest of society, and Kings were thought to be the representatives of God's majesty on earth. In the middle of the 18th century, these and other long-standing traditions came under attack by a cultural and intellectual revolution known as "The Enlightenment." In reading circles, coffee houses, and salons from Paris and London to Philadelphia, a new system of thought developed and spread throughout Europe and the colonies. Through the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and others, we will explore the radical ideas about politics, religion, law, race, and gender by which intellectuals claimed to be sweeping away the "barbarism" of the old world and ushering in the modern "Age of Reason." 

When Offered Spring.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (HA-AS)
Course Subfield (HPE, HEU)

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