ARCH 248 - Cultural Encounters 1600-1914

This course critically examines the period from the 17th century to the first years of the 20th century, studying revolutions in science, agriculture, and industry, and considering the social, political, and economic changes engendered globally in their wake. Selected works from philosophy, literature, the arts, architecture, landscape, and city design reveal complex social and political upheavals. The increasing influence of technology, and the power struggles around access to and extraction of the globe's resources. Topics considered include the birth of industrial nations driven by Enlightenment reason, science and the emancipative promise of political liberty, as well as the fall of that early idealism with the realities of capitalism, colonialism, racism, and the destruction of the natural environment. Considering encounters between people, as well as between people and the earth, this course studies both the promises and shadows of the complex global society that emerges in this time.