UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURETI

FACULTATEA DE TIINE POLITICE

PROGRAMUL DE STUDII DE LICEN: TIINE POLITICE N LIMBA ENGLEZ
(STUDY PROGRAMME / PROGRAMME DTUDES)

ANUL DE STUDII: I AN UNIVERSITAR: 2013-2014

(YEAR OF STUDY / ANNE DTUDES) (ACADEMIC YEAR / ANNE ACADMIQUE)
SEMESTRUL DE STUDII: I COD DISCIPLIN: SP1203
(SEMESTER / SEMESTRE) (COURSE CODE / CODE DU COURS)

POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN MODERN EUROPE

POLITIC I SOCIETATE N EUROPA MODERN

Titular: Lect. univ. Dr. Victor RIZESCU

(INSTRUCTOR/ ENSEIGNANT)
Tip curs: obligatoriu (mandatory)
(COURSE TYPE / TYPE DE COURS)

SCURT DESCRIERE
(BRIEF DESCRIPTION / DESCRIPTION SYNTHTIQUE)
The course gives a broad view of early modern and 19th century European history, against the background of a
still more condensed survey of the medieval period. All throughout, it aims at disclosing main trends and
patterns of change, while at the same time delineating the most significant facts and historical agents. The
focus is on the evolution of the western part of the continent, which is nevertheless related to developments in
Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. Besides, the course aims at establishing a bridge between the
concerns of historical inquiry and those of the social sciences.

OBIECTIVE DE NVARE
(LEARNING OBJECTIVES / OBJECTIFS PDAGOGIQUES)
The main objective of the course is that of forging the ability of the students to relate contemporary society to
the basic record of its historical genesis. The course also targets the objective of enabling the students to place
Romanian social and political realities in a broad comparative perspective.

BIBLIOGRAFIE GENERAL
(GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY / BIBLIOGRAPHIE GNRALE)

Basic textbooks
Berstein, Serge, Pierre Milza, Istoria Europei [1994], Iai, Institutul European, 1998, vols. 2-4 (out of 5).
Davies, Norman, Europe. A History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Supplementary
Fisher, H. A. L., A History of Europe, London, Arnold, 1937.
Hobsbawm, Eric J., The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848, New York, Mentor, 1962 (and in Romanian translation).
----------, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875, New York, Scribner, 1975 (and in Romanian translation).
----------, The Age of Empire, 1875-1914, New York, Pantheon, 1987 (and in Romanian translation).
McNeill, William H., The Rise of the West. A History of the Human Community, Chicago, The University of
Chicago Press, 1963 (and in Romanian translation).
Roberts, J. M., A History of the World, Oxford, Helicon, 1992.
SP1203 2013-2014

MODALITI DE EVALUARE
(REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION / FORMES ET CRITRES DVALUATION)
Students are expected to attend the course, on the basis of a preliminary acquaintance with the bibliography
provided for each class. They will have to write an essay on the basis of a segment of the same bibliography.
Grading will be done on the basis of the essay and a written or oral exam.

PLANUL CURSURILOR I AL SEMINARIILOR

(COURSE AND SEMINARS OUTLINE / PROGRAMME DES SANCES)

1. Introduction

2. Medieval background: the empire and the church

Readings: Daniel Chirot, How Societies Change, sec. ed., Los Angeles, Sage Publications, 2011, ch. 2: Agrarian
Societies, pp. 17-57.

3. Medieval background: patrimonial monarchies and feudalism

Readings: Maurice Keen, The Pelican History of Medieval Europe, London, Penguin Books, 1971 [1968], ch. 2:
The Revival of Empire; ch. 3: Serfdom and Feudalism; ch. 5: Empire and Papacy, pp. 29-60, 73-83.

4. Medieval background: centralizing monarchies and mixed government

Readings: Hagen Schulze, States, Nations and Nationalism. From the Middle Ages to the Present, transl. by
William E. Yuill (The Making of Europe series), London, Blackwell, 1996, ch. 1: The Advent of the Modern
State; ch. 2: Christianity and Reasons of State, pp. 3-47.

5. Medieval background: the world around the western Christendom

Readings: Chirot, How Societies Change, ch. 3: The Rise of the West, pp. 59-83.

6. The Italian wars and the European balance of power

Readings: G. R. Elton, Reformation Europe, 1517-1559 (The Fontana History of Europe series), London,
Fontana Press, 1983 [1963], ch. 1: Luther; ch. 2: Charles V; ch. 8: Calvin, pp. 15-52, 210-238.

7. The spread of Reformation and the Spanish ascendancy

Readings: John H. Elliot, The Decline of Spain, Past and Present 20, 1961, pp. 52-75.

8. From the Spanish decline to the French hegemony

Readings: Schulze, States, Nations and Nationalism, ch. 3: Leviathan; ch. 4: The Constitutional State and the
Rule of Law, pp. 48-91.

9. From the Spanish succession to the French Revolution

Readings: Eugen Weber, A Modern History of Europe, New York, Norton, 1971, ch. 10: Constitutional Evolution
in Britain, pp. 477-506.

10. The French Revolution, 1789-1799

Readings: R. R. Palmer, The World Revolution of the West, 1763-1801, Political Science Quarterly 69: 1, 1954,
pp. 1-14.

11. The revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic era, 1792-1815

Readings: Weber, A Modern History of Europe, ch. 11: Revolutionary Change in France, pp. 507-549.

12. Revolution, counterrevolution and British world hegemony, 1815-1850

Readings: David Thomson, Europe since Napoleon, London, Penguin Books, 1974 [1957], ch. 8: The Phase of
Conservatism; ch. 9: The Liberal Revolutions of 1830-1833: ch. 11: The National Revolutions of 1848-1850,
pp. 130-177, 204-234.

13. The age of Italian and German unification, 1850-1871

Readings: Schulze, States, Nations and Nationalism, ch. 10: The Revolutionary Nation State, 1815-1871, pp.
197-230.

2/3
SP1203 2013-2014

14. Imperialism and international realignments, 1871-1914

Readings: James Joll, Europe since 1870. An International History, London, Penguin Books, 1982 [1973], ch. 3:
The Socialist Challenge; ch. 4: Imperialism, pp. 49-112.

Students should be aware of the Departments policy of academic integrity: cheating, falsification, forgery, multiple
submission, plagiarism, complicity and computer misuse will automatically trigger a failing grade for the respective
course. According to the provisions of the Charter of the University of Bucharest, students found guilty of plagiarism can
be expelled from the University without the right to appeal.

3/3