HIST 4381 - The Enlightenment, 1650-1815

Credit Hours: (3)

Description: The Enlightenment has been described as a “revolution of the mind” and also as a “crisis of the mind,” a century when Europeans’ understanding of themselves, their societies, and their place in the world was irrevocably transformed. In this course we will consider the nature of this intellectual and cultural revolution. Did Enlightenment thinkers invent modern political freedom or lay the groundwork for new forms of colonial oppression, slavery, and political terror? Did the Enlightenment justify empire or critique it? What role did religion and religious thought play in the Enlightenment? What was the relationship between the Enlightenment and the revolutions that convulsed the British, French, and Spanish empires at the end of the eighteenth century?