Online course: The Modern World, Part Two: Global History since 1910 (First part here)

Dates: any time

Duration: 21 hours

Rating: 4.8 / 5.0 out of 1134 ratings (see top rating courses here)

Participating countries: any country

Apply here: Application form

Organizer: University of Virginia at Coursera

Cost:

  • FREE
  • $49 with sharable certificate

The Modern World, Part Two: Global History since 1910

This is a survey of modern history from a global perspective. Part Two begins early in the twentieth century, as older ways of doing things and habits of thought give way. What follows is an era of cataclysmic struggles over what ideas and institutions will take their place. The course concludes in the present day, as communities everywhere are transitioning into a new era of world history. Again we work hard to grasp what is happening and ask: Why? Again we are drawn to pivotal choices made at key moments by individuals and communities.

Instructors

 

 

Programme

WEEK 1: 2 hours to complete

Crackup (1905-1917)

The Shock of 1914
Schizophrenic Germany
The Balkan Whirlpool
The Shock of 1914-Second Cut
All the Plans Fail
On to Victory?

WEEK 2: 3 hours to complete

New Orders Emerge (1917-1930)

Total States
Why Did the Allies Win?
The End of Empires?
Communism
Anti-Communism
The Age of Uncertainty
Modern Women
The World of 1930

WEEK 3: 2 hours to complete

The Crisis of the World (1930-1940)

Challenges to Capitalism and Collective Security
Escapes from Freedom
Total Politics
New Wars for New Empires
Triumph of the New Empires

WEEK 4: 3 hours to complete

Total War and Aftermath (1940-1950)

Choosing Global War
Gambling for Victory
Strategies for Total War
Zero Hour
Imagining New Countries
Postwar
Two Europes
Revolutionary Asia

WEEK 5: 4 hours to complete

The Return of Wartime (1950-1968)

The Age of the Americans
Choosing War in Korea
Contemplating World War III
The Shadow of World War III
The Nuclear Revolution
New Empires and Confederations
The Third World
To the Brink
Wars of Containment

WEEK 6: 3 hours to complete

Decay and Renaissance (1968-1991)

Breakdown and Reaction
The Weary Establishment
Bust
New Thinking in the West
Global Capitalism Transformed
New Thinking in the East
The End of the Cold War

WEEK 7: 4 hours to complete

The Next Phase (1991-2013)

The ‘Washington Consensus’
Toward a New Era in World History
The Great Convergence
The Bottom Billion
The Muslim World
Drift and Shock
The Global and the Local
An Age of Transition