During the modern era, the culture and lifestyle of the west have become, in large measure, those of the rest of the world. Its religions, its economic activities and theories, its industrialization, its political theories and practices, its art, music and popular culture have influenced most of the earth's peoples. Today's world would be unrecognizable but for the societies. We literally cannot understand this world if we have no sense of development of the west.

Our consideration will take us roughly from 1648 to the present. For historians, this constitutes the "modern" era--characterized by bureaucratic and secular governments, movements toward democracy, the proliferation of commercial and industrial capitalism. We will examine key features of the history of this time: the emergence of modern political ideas, of social classes, industrialization, political revolution and changes in aesthetic sensibilities.