This unit will seek to understand how ideas that became articles of faith in the modern world often emerged as hope-filled arguments for change. Through a close engagement with key thinkers that shaped the project of modernity and their contexts we will seek to examine how thinkers saw the world around them and why they sought to change it. Each week includes one lecture on the writings and thought of a key thinker and one lecture on their historical context. Students will read and discuss, for example, Darwin in the context of Victorian Britain; Freud in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna; or Mao in Communist China. We will ask how these intellectual heavyweights saw their world? What problems were... -- Course Website
Instructor: Dr Leigh Boucher
Prerequisites: 39cp or (6cp in HIST or MHIS or POL units at 200 level including 3cp in HIST or MHIS)
