Democracy: The Long View and the Bumpy History
HIST 87
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This course will explore key episodes and turning points in the history of democracy from ancient Athens to the present. It is shaped by two overarching and compelling questions: What circumstances, conditions, and forces are conducive to the development, deepening, and preservation of democratic ideas, values, and institutions? And conversely, what are the conditions or forces that tend to inhibit or threaten the emergence, strengthening, or even survival of democracy? Among the historical episodes to be examined are: ancient Greece and the Near East; the American Revolution; Europe during industrialization; Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries; India and Pakistan; the “third wave” of democratization; and the challenges facing democratization in the last thirty years.
Course Notes
This course meets the "North America" History Concentration requirement. Former course number "HIST 1390."
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
