Videos at HIST 2111: Koofers

43:07

Introductions: Why Does the Civil War Era Have a Hold on American Historical Imagination?

Professor Blight offers an introduction to the course. He summarizes some of the course readings, and discusses the organization of the course is discussed. Professor Blight offers some thoughts on th..

Author: David W. Blight Views: 19

51:49

Lincoln, Leadership, and Race: Emancipation as Policy

Professor Blight follows Robert E. Lee's army north into Maryland during the summer of 1862, an invasion that culminated in the Battle of Antietam, fought in September of 1862. In the wake of Antietam..

Author: David W. Blight Views: 3

33:03

Introduction to Ancient Greek History

Professor Donald Kagan explains why people should study the ancient Greeks. He argues that the Greeks are worthy of our study not only because of their vast achievements and contributions to Western c..

Author: Donald Kagan Views: 72

1:09:34

Athenian Democracy

In this lecture, Professor Kagan describes the mechanics of the Delian League and its transformation into the Athenian empire. This transformation caused Athens to rival Sparta as an equal in power an..

Author: Donald Kagan Views: 33

48:24

Napoleon

One way of understanding Napoleon's life is through attention to his Corsican origins. Although Napoleon himself would later disavow his earlier identification with the island in favor of French ident..

Author: John Merriman Views: 5

48:21

A Nation? Peasants, Language, and French Identity

The problematic question of when people in France began to consider themselves part of a French nation, with a specifically French national identity, has often been explained in terms of the modernizi..

Author: John Merriman Views: 18

36:19

Introduction to European Civilization

The course will concern European history from 1648 to 1945. The assigned readings include both standard historical texts and works of fiction, as well as films. Although the period in question encompa..

Author: John Merriman Views: 9

45:12

Absolutism and the State

The rise of absolutism in Europe must be understood in the context of insecurity attending the religious wars of the first half of the seventeenth century, and the Thirty Years' War in particular. Fac..

Author: John Merriman Views: 6

45:43

Peter the Great

Peter the Great's historical significance stems not only from his military ambitions and the great expansion of the Russian Empire under his supervision, but also from his efforts to introduce secular..

Author: John Merriman Views: 5

46:33

Dutch and British Exceptionalism

Several reasons can be found to explain why Great Britain and the Netherlands did not follow the other major European powers of the seventeenth century in adopting absolutist rule. Chief among these w..

Author: John Merriman Views: 1

47:59

The Enlightenment and the Public Sphere

While the major philosophical projects of the Enlightenment are associated with the names of individual thinkers such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, the cultural transformation in France in t..

Author: John Merriman Views: 1

49:57

Maximilien Robespierre and the French Revolution

Robespierre's ascetic personal life and severe philosophy of political engagement are attributed by some to his difficult childhood. As a revolutionary, one of his most significant insights was that t..

Author: John Merriman Views: 1

48:14

Industrial Revolutions

The Industrial Revolution was for a long time treated as a decisive break in which some countries, specifically England, innovated and progressed rapidly while others were left behind. This type of an..

Author: John Merriman Views: 2

50:35

Middle Classes

The nineteenth century in Europe is, in many ways, synonymous with the rise of the bourgeoisie. It is misleading, however, to consider this newly dominant middle class as a homogenous group; rather, t..

Author: John Merriman Views: 1

47:16

Popular Protest

Collective violence, in the form of popular protest, was one of the principal ways in which people resisted the expansion of capitalism and the state throughout the nineteenth century. The nature of t..

Author: John Merriman Views: 0

42:29

Why No Revolution in 1848 in Britain

Revolutions occur when a critical mass of people come together to make specific demands upon their government. They invariably involve an increase in popular involvement in the political process. One ..

Author: John Merriman Views: 0

51:29

Nineteenth-Century Cities

The nineteenth century witnessed an unprecedented degree of urbanization, an increase in urban population growth relative to population growth generally. One of the chief consequences of this growth w..

Author: John Merriman Views: 0

50:50

Nationalism

In light of the many ethnic and national conflicts of the twentieth century, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 appears less surprising than the fact that it remained intact for so..

Author: John Merriman Views: 2

49:36

Radicals

Socialism in the nineteenth century can be divided into two different strains of thought: reformist and revolutionary. While reformist socialists believed in changing the State through legal activity,..

Author: John Merriman Views: 0

51:04

Imperialists and Boy Scouts

The boom in European colonial expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century, the so-called New Imperialism, can be seen to follow from three principle factors, in ascending order of importanc..

Author: John Merriman Views: 2