The Birth of the Modern European State: 1400-1815

Catalog description

What is a sovereign state, and when did it arise in European history? How have major scholars accounted for its origins and nature? And has history borne out their hypotheses? To answer these questions this course engages landmark readings about the “state” by legendary social scientists from Weber to Foucault and case studies of its genesis by prominent historians of Europe and its colonial empires, from 1400--1815.