Europe History
Europe History
This is a historical writing assignment that requires some reading of European history.
Below are the requirements and books, thanks for your help.
For the midterm short essay, choose one of the following prompts and write a short essay that a) makes an argument that completely addresses all components of the prompt and b) includes at least three specific references to So, About Modern Europe… from at least two different chapters of the book (please use parenthetical references). You may quote directly from the book, but all direct quotes should be explained in your own words (simply including a quote will not be acceptable for full credit).
1. While David Imhoof argues throughout So, About Modern Europe… that big ideas rooted in the Enlightenment influenced subsequent European and global history, he begins the book with chapters on two earlier intellectual movements, the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. While the Enlightenment might, in his opinion, be the most important of the three, the other two—the subjects of Chapters 1 and 2 of the book—were also influential. To respond to this prompt, choose three specific ways that ideas specifically associated with the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution (in other words, from chapters 1 and 2) influenced historical change in European history during the “era of revolutions”, from the French Revolution of 1789 through 19th-century industrialization (in other words, chapters 4, 5, and 6) and write a single short essay that explains those three connections.
2. On pages 51-53 of So, About Modern Europe, David Imhoof examines the tendency of Enlightenment thinkers to divide the world into “light” and “dark”, referencing the plot of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Given Imhoof’s larger argument in the book about the centrality of Enlightenment thought for subsequent European history, it should not be surprising that this idea returns throughout the following three chapters on the “era of revolutions” (see, for example, pages 85 or 108). To respond to this prompt, choose three specific ways that the juxtaposition of “light” and “dark” in Enlightenment thought, for better or worse, influenced historical change during this “era of revolutions”, from the French Revolution of 1789 through 19th-century industrialization (in other words, chapters 4, 5, and 6) and write a single short essay that explains those three connections.
