Here you’ll find course descriptions for most of the course I taught at the University of Oregon’s R. D. Clark Honors College, the University of Adelaide’s Discipline of History, and Quest University. Clicking on the course title will bring you to the full description of the courses, and, in some cases, will allow you to view one or more versions of the course syllabus.
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Texts: Persian Letters
Division of Arts and Humanities, Quest University CanadaThis course will focus on the Persian Letters. Published under cover of anonymity in 1721, this curious and clever epistolary novel rapidly became a runaway bestseller, catapulting its author, quickly unmasked as Charles Louis Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, into fame and fortune. The story of two Persians, Usbek and Rica, who travel to Europe remains—almost…
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The Great War
Division of Arts and Humanities, Quest University CanadaA century ago, a war that contemporaries almost immediately dubbed the “Great War” roared across Europe and the world. The war—arguable the first total war—marked the defining moment of the twentieth century. Tens of millions of men were mobilized to fight in the bloodiest conflict the world had seen; millions of those died, were wounded,…
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The Pursuit of Happiness
Discipline of History, University of AdelaideThis course will study the cultural and intellectual history of the pursuit of happiness, focusing on 19th and early 20th century Europe. It will examine the intellectual underpinnings of the pursuit of happiness in late Enlightenment thought; the revolutionary implications of the pursuit of happiness for political order and stability; the rise of consumer and…
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The World in Turmoil
Discipline of History, University of AdelaideThis course will introduce you to some key issues in the history of the twentieth century. The issues with which the course deals are central to an understanding of the most turbulent century in the world’s history—and to your understanding of the world in which you live. The course provides a general introduction to global…
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Topics in Francophone History: The Great War
Division of Arts and Humanities, Quest University Canada
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Topics in Modern European History
Division of Arts and Humanities, Quest University CanadaIt is no exaggeration to say that Europe dominated the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its politics, technology, economy, and military left an imprint on the world with which we are still struggling to come to terms. Europe’s ideas shaped the modern world—and, to an extent we don’t always recognize, made us—even if…
