Justin Rivest

Through lectures and discussions, this course introduces the student to early modern Europe, with special attention to Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. It treats such topics as the Reformation, the emergence of the French challenge to the European equilibrium, Britain's eccentric constitutional course, the pattern of European contacts with the non-European world, the character of daily life in premodern Europe, the Enlightenment, the appearance of Russia on the European scene, and the origins of German dualism, as well as the impact of the French Revolution on Europe. This counts toward the premodern and Europe/Americas requirements for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every year.

This course presents a survey of French history from the 17th century to the present, emphasizing the political/cultural life of France, particularly attempts to secure an elusive stability within a long trajectory of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary tumult. The course covers the reign of Louis XIV, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the renovation of the city of Paris, the modernization of the contryside, the cultural ferment of the fin-de-siècle, the crisis years 1914-1945, and the decolonization of Algeria, France's global connections, from the 17th century to the 20th, receive special attention. The course also explores the various ways (manifest through art, politics and social life) in which France conceived of itself as an exemplary nation or as a practitioner of an exemplary modernity to the rest of the world. This counts toward the modern and Europe/Americas requirements and the colonial/imperial field for the major. No prerequisite.

This course explores a period of unprecedented changes in European intellectual culture. Shaken by the encounter with the New World, by a new cosmological perspective, and by the rediscovery of previously unknown ancient sources, European learned society attempted to rethink the very foundations on which its knowledge of the surrounding world rested. The course begins by looking at the medieval universities and the nascent challenges to Aristotelian philosophy that emerged from the rediscovery of ancient schools of thought. We explore debates about the proper sources of knowledge in cosmology and natural philosophy that led to a decoupling of religion and science, giving rise to new types of explanations about the structure and origin of the universe. We see how the transformations in the perception of the natural world impacted political thought and led to the birth of new rationally based political ideologies. In addition to the intellectual transformations, this course explores the changes in sociability and the transition from the Republic of Letters to the growing importance of the public sphere and of public opinion. Finally, we interrogate the very scholarly categories that are so commonly used to define the 17th and 18th centuries. This counts toward the premodern and Europe/Americas requirements for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.

The 16th and 17th centuries were the golden age of alchemy, astrology and magic in Europe. They were integrated into science and medicine, and they offered tools for humans to achieve power over the workings of their own bodies and over the natural world. Yet, by the end of the 18th century, following the tumult of the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, they had been rejected by learned culture. Consigned to the realm of pseudoscience, folk culture and superstition, they re-emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries as elements of alternative spiritualities. How can we explain this profound transformation?\nThe main goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with the contours of pre-modern ideas of science, nature and the human body. Following the analysis of primary sources and modern academic discussions, students are invited to formulate their own opinions of the processes by which alchemy, astrology and magic were applied, rejected and transformed. This counts toward the premodern and Europe/Americas requirements and the global Medieval; and science, environment and health fields for the major. No prerequisite. Sophomore standing.

This course focuses on the conceptual frameworks used by historians and on debates within the profession about the nature of the past and the best way to write about it. The seminar prepares students of history to be productive researchers, insightful readers and effective writers. The seminar is required for history majors and should be completed before the senior year. Open only to sophomores and juniors. This counts toward the practice and theory requirement for the major. Declared history or international studies major only.

The French Revolution was a watershed moment in the history of the Western world. Many historians believe it was the beginning of modernity, as the Revolution ushered in seismic transformations in political, social, economic, cultural and intellectual life. Turbulent popular upheavals precipitated the unraveling of the existing social order, the unprecedented beheading of the king, the rapid mutation of political institutions and even the abolition of the Christian calendar. These changes occurred not only in France, but throughout the Western Hemisphere. French armies exported the ideas and institutions of the Revolution into neighboring European countries, while political leaders fighting for independence in Haiti and Latin America appropriated the rhetoric of the French revolutionaries for their own purposes. The Revolution's mythological legacy continued to inspire revolutionaries across the world far into the 19th century and beyond, making it an event of truly global significance. This seminar is structured both thematically and chronologically. We begin by looking back into the mid-18th century at the Old Regime to explore the various factors that brought about the end of the existing order. The Revolution's singular importance has turned it into a minefield of controversial debates across generations of historians, who have attempted to account for its causes and effects. We encounter various historical explanations of the Revolution and reflect on the assumptions and methods of different historical schools that have attempted to interpret it. We then explore the Revolution in its many stages, from its radical republicanism to the Reign of Terror to the eventual rise and fall of Napoleon. We end by considering the Revolution's short- and long-term effects. This counts toward the premodern and Europe/Americas requirements for the major. No prerequisite. Sophomore standing. Offered every other year.