The European Renaissance: Dawn of the Modern World? - Detailseite

According to an older view of history, the European Renaissance inaugurated the modern world, thus giving birth to a glorious age of enlightenment and progress. More recently this narrative has been seriously challenged from a variety of standpoints, including from feminist, postcolonial, and global paradigms. The value of Western culture has been deconstructed, and the history of the West and its place in global history soberly re-evaluated. In 2017 a new study appeared that invites us to revisit the Renaissance and its importance for world history: Bernd Roeck’s Der Morgen der Welt. Integrating comparative and counterfactual approaches, it asks what was special about the Renaissance, why it did not happen elsewhere or at another point in time, and what its legacy is today.

We will read this book closely in English translation in order to engage as critically as possible with its arguments. The language of the course is English. Knowledge of German is helpful but not necessary.

(Der Kurs findet eher synchron statt.)

Bernd Roeck, Der Morgen der Welt (Munich: Beck, 2017)

Ausgleichsberechtigte Studierende wenden sich zur bevorzugten Platzvergabe per E-Mail mit einem Nachweis der Ausgleichsberechtigung an die Studienkoordinationsstelle Geschichte. Ausschlussfrist für die Geltendmachung von Ausgleichsberechtigungen ist der letzte Tag der zentralen Frist, 16 Uhr. Textnachrichten in AGNES werden hingegen nicht gelesen!