Recent & contemporary history

  • Sites of History: France

    This course, taught in France, explores the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of modern France. What better way to understand the bohemian life of the Belle Époque than to walk up to the top of the…

    Read on…

  • The Pursuit of Happiness

    This course will study the cultural and intellectual history of the pursuit of happiness, focusing on 19th and early 20th century Europe. It will examine the intellectual underpinnings of the pursuit of happiness in late…

    Read on…

  • The World in Turmoil

    This course will introduce you to some key issues in the history of the twentieth century. The issues with which the course deals are central to an understanding of the most turbulent century in the…

    Read on…

  • War, Film, and History

    Film has a powerful effect on the way we understand history, and particularly the history of war. In this course, we study a selection of films that deal directly or indirectly with war: we explore…

    Read on…

  • The Great War

    A century ago, a war that contemporaries almost immediately dubbed the “Great War” roared across Europe and the world. The war—arguable the first total war—marked the defining moment of the twentieth century. Tens of millions…

    Read on…

  • Topics in Modern European History

    It is no exaggeration to say that Europe dominated the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its politics, technology, economy, and military left an imprint on the world with which we are still struggling…

    Read on…