TCC - Govind Sreenivasan - Europe and the Wars of Religion (1500

Europe and the Wars of Religion (1500-1700)
 
Course Number 8247—24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

Taught by:  Professor Govind Sreenivasan—Brandeis University
 
At some points in history, questions about how a nation is created or reshaped might be considered academic. At other times however—including those we are living through now—the questions acquire far more urgency. 
What is the relationship between the political institution of the state and the cultural community of the nation? How, exactly, does a stable state come to evolve? What ideologies of order go into creating submission or obedience to the state, or cooperation with it? What are the social foundations of political turbulence, or the international implications of internal policies and events?

In addition, what roles are played by the various “technologies,” or systems, brought into play by the rulers and the ruled, or the representatives and the represented, including technologies of repression, resistance, law, taxation, and governance?

Anyone who understands the answers to these and similar questions will have a distinct advantage in interpreting the news stories about “nation building” that are already unfolding on an almost daily basis, and which promise to continue in the coming months and years. 

Focusing specifically on two key centuries of European development—resulting in the formation of the modern state—we are pleased to offer an intellectually probing and absorbing course built around exactly these kinds of inquiries.