World History: Modern

This course may function as an independent semester credit or as the second half of a yearlong World History sequence. In World History: Modern, students will explore the development of human societies from the Renaissance and Reformation to contemporary times. Working from a global and comparative perspective, students will investigate major topics such as human-environment interactions; the agricultural and industrial revolutions; the power of religion, science and ideology; the nature of state, society and community; war, empire and resistance; and the acceleration of trade, exploration and globalization. Students will be encouraged to develop — and persuasively advocate for — their own interpretations based on careful and critical analysis of historical sources. World History: Modern is designed to complement subjects and themes encountered in World Literature.