The course will cover European history from 1648 to 1945. Although the period in question encompasses many monumental events and "great men," attention will also be paid to the development of themes over the long term and the experiences of people and groups often excluded from official histories. Among the principal questions to be addressed are the consolidation of state power, linguistic and national affiliations, and the effects of economic change.

This course offers a broad survey of modern European history, from the end of the Thirty Years' War to the aftermath of World War II. Along with the consideration of major events and figures such as the French Revolution and Napoleon, attention will be paid to the experience of ordinary people in times of upheaval and transition. The period will thus be viewed neither in terms of historical inevitability nor as a procession of great men, but rather through the lens of the complex interrelations between demographic change, political revolution, and cultural development.

John Merriman is a professor of History at Yale University. Specializing in French and modern European history, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His publications include The Agony of the Republic: The Repression of the Left in Revolutionary France, A History of Modern Europe Since the Renaissance, and Police Stories: Making the French State, 1815-1851. In 2000, Professor Merriman was the recipient of the Yale University Byrnes-Sewall Teaching Prize.