Dual Revolution

Instructions:

After watching the YouTube video and reading the assigned readings, please choose one of the topics below and discuss the topic accordingly. It is not necessary to respond to all of the questions in the thread topic; these questions are intended to help facilitate critical thinking about the topics and materials. The discussion should simply present a thoughtful response that addresses the main topic chosen.

Minimum word count: 300 words

Must include at least two direct quotations (with page numbers) from two different readings or other materials

YouTube lecture video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onrRmxxUNV4

Textbook link: https://b-ok.cc/book/21346061/1d82da (I used Adobe Digital Editions to open the download)

Please use the following sections in the book for the assignment:

Page 1-27: Chapter 1: Imperial Europe at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

Page 34-38: Imperial Dreams, Imperial Realities

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”

Lothar Von Trotha, “Proclamation to the Herero People…”

Page 43-47: Picture Essay: Europe’s Global Aura in an Age of Nationalism

Topics (choose only 1 to discuss)

Defining "modernity"

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What does the term "modernity" mean? What were the defining characteristics of "modern" Europe around the beginning of the twentieth century? How is modern Europe different from Europe in earlier periods? How did Europeans come to view the world, history, and their place in it in new "modern" ways during the nineteenth centuryBottom of Form

"Dual Revolution"

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The historian Eric Hobsbawm has argued that, in the late 1700s, the democratic revolution in France and the industrial revolution in Britain together formed a "dual revolution" that laid the foundations of modern European society. How did these two revolutions work together? In what ways might they have been opposed? Which of these revolutions, the political or the economic, do you think had the greatest impact on Europe and the world? Which effects were most significant? Who benefited from, or was hurt by, these modern changes in society?

The idea of "progress"

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Is the idea of “progress” a particularly modern way of looking at the world? What kinds of progress did Europeans believe they were seeing around them at the beginning of the twentieth century? Was everyone optimistic, or might some have been apprehensive or even opposed to these changes? What could be some of the advantages or blind spots to this kind of progressive outlook?

Europe and the World

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What was Europe's role in the world at the beginning of the twentieth century? How did Europeans view and interact with people in other parts of the world? What were some of the effects of these global interactions on European culture and society? Did Europe have a positive or negative impact on the world in this period?

War on the horizon

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As we will see in the next unit, World War I broke out in 1914 with considerable enthusiasm among many Europeans who felt the war would have a swift and positive outcome. What trends and ideas popular in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe might have caused Europeans to embrace war? What might have laid the groundwork for the unprecedented death and destruction that, as we now know, was the actual result of this war?Bottom of Form

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