Topic outline

    • This course introduces students to the crucible of the modern age. Hinging on the French and 1848 Revolutions, it explores how men and women in elite and popular communities generated new modes of living, experience and expression and how they understood and manipulated the natural world. Attention will be given to the Enlightenment, Revolution, Empire, Romanticism and Ideology with interrelated developments in politics, culture and science also being explored. Students will be introduced to the works of figures such as Newton, Kant, Hume, Herder, Marx, Darwin and Nietzsche.

      The forging of, and resistance to, new ideas concerning the individual, gender, society, the state and the natural world generated a wide-ranging and vigorous debate, which held at its heart a vital sense of the actors as either self-consciously modern or reactionary. At the core of the course will therefore be a study of the notion of revolutionary change, both in its specifically political and its broader cultural meanings. Thus, the ways in which revolutions were generated across the period, and the impact they held for the populace which created and experienced them will be the central focus of each phase of the course.

      Lectures will highlight emblematic figures in each phase, and themes which link the different phases together. Particular attention will be given to the social context which generated and shaped actors, examining for instance, the rise of a reading public, the professionalisation of cultural activity, and the fragmentation of an ideal of universal knowledge.

      Course Coordinator: Dr Elizabeth MacKnight e.macknight@abdn.ac.uk 

  • What skills does this course develop?

    • By the end of the course students should be able to:

      • display a basic knowledge of European history during a crucial period of
      • crisis and change
      • understand some of the primary debates among historians in narrating the
      • period
      • interrogate the meaning of key terms such as Enlightenment, Revolution
      • and Ideology
      • communicate these understandings in written and oral form


      Personal and Transferable Skills

      This course is intended to sharpen skills in:

      • written and verbal communication (explanation and argument), through essay work and tutorial discussion
      • independent learning, through preparation for essays and tutorials
      • exposition through the application of scepticism, common sense and open intellectual inquiry
      • IT, including word-processing and internet retrieval, through preparation for tutorials
      • documentary analysis, through the questioning of tutorial documents and the documentary test

  • What will the timetable be like?

    • Medical students taking ME33BM as part of the Medical Humanities programme will join the course from Week 7 of teaching and must attend all classes from that point. They will be assigned to one of the existing tutorials in accordance with their timetables and should sign up at the beginning of the semester.

  • What did previous students think of the course?

    • One student said "Brilliant course"

      Another student said "Found it very interesting and enjoyable to study history again and practice essay writing skills"

      Student view 19-20



  • How will the course be assessed?

    • One 3,000-word Essay - 60% of the total mark.

      One short written exercise - 30% of the total mark. This will either be a 500-word analysis of a tutorial document, or a 500-word review of a secondary source book.

      The tutorial participation - 10% of the final mark. Tutorial Attendance is compulsory (and will be monitored).

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