An introduction to the revolutionary events in politics and the economy, principally the industrialization of society, and the national, class, ethnic, and gender conflicts that dominated the period, including their cultural and ideological aspects. The course begins with the wars and revolutions of the 18th c., including the French Revolution, characterized by high hopes for the rational mastery of nature and society. It concludes with the Second World War, a period of mass destruction and total war, and the construction of the institutions of post-national Europe.