Hum 104 Lecture Notes on Globalization, Terrorism and Postmodernism 1970-2014

Hum 104, Lecture notes 2014, class VIII
Chapter 23, The Contemporary World, 1970-2014
Globalization, Terrorism, Postmodernism
I quote-
New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) Project- a post-modern
complex set to be completed in 2014-is a powerful symbol of
today’s complex, global world. The first WTC, sited on the
East River, just steps from Wall Street, was finished in 1973. A
modernist jewel, its twin glass towers seemed to signal two
messages: the United States is a super power and New York is a
major player in the emerging global economy. Those messages
were strengthened in 1990, with the end of the cold war and the
breakup of the Soviet Union. Even a failed bombing attack
against the WTC by Islamic radicals in 1993, only briefly
disrupted the period’s generally optimistic mood. But, on
September 11, 2011, all of that changed. Islamic radicals
brought down the Twin Towers, causing great loss of life. An
outraged nation, led by President George W. Bush, vowed to
avenge the attacks and rebuild the World Trade Center.
The destruction of the World Trade Center divides this period
into two phases: toward a new global order, 1970-2001; and the
Age of Terrorism, 1970-present. Before 9/11, the West, driven
by globalization and a booming economy, envisioned the future
as a peaceful, unified, multicultural world. After 9/11, that
global vision was challenged. Conflicts between the West and
Islamic radicals, which had been sporadic for decades, now
moved to a higher level, most notably in wars against the
Islamic states of Iraq and Afghanistan. The globalization ideal
remained dominant in cultural conversation. The global
economy boomed until the Great Recession that began in 2008.
Today, the economy, though shaky, shows many signs of
recovery-offering hope for the future. And the 2011 Arab
Spring uprisings have, once again, caused the West to rethink
its relationship to the Islamic world.

End of quote.
No big wars marked the 70s, but little wars continued. Ethnic
conflicts proliferated, and the globe shrank. Détente was the
word of the moment as the super-powers became more open
with each other, especially economically.
OPEC began to oppose the buying nations that had founded the
group. In 1974, they embargoed the sale of oil to the US and
Western Europe which led to gasoline shortages, high prices at
the pump, and rationing. Some states used an odd/even license
plate number to decide which day its owner could get fuel, and
some stations sold gasoline only to their regulars and then an
appointment was needed.
Presidents of the US during the age were: Richard Nixon, who
ended the war in Viet Nam; opened dialogue with China, but
wound up resigning from office because of his involvement in
the Watergate cover-up. Gerald Ford, appointed VP when Spiro
Agnew was forced to resign that office, served the rest of
Nixon’s term and brought some calm to the country’s politics.
Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer and former governor of Georgia,
was elected during the bicentennial year of 1976. As a
Washington outsider, he had little success with legislative
efforts and was president during the entire Iran hostage crisis.
From Nixon through Carter, the US faced adversity at home and
abroad and lost much of its swagger.
That changed with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. He
restored the national mood by pursuing a 300 ship navy that
helped the economy and the nation’s outlook. Reaganomics
were a hit with the conservatives even though taxes increased
and the trade gap appeared. Disparity of wealth widened the
gap between rich and poor. George H. W. Bush succeeded
Reagan, invaded Iraq and freed Kuwait. Still, the economy
tanked and he lost the election to Bill Clinton in 1992. Clinton
was a great consensus builder, balanced the budget and created
a surplus, failed to pass a sweeping health care plan, and had
personal morality issues. George W. Bush was elected in 2000.
He got a major education initiative, No Child Left Behind

(NCLB) passed. He was surrounded by scoundrels including his
VP, Dick Cheney. He invaded Afghanistan after 9/11, but lost
focus and invaded Iraq. He spent Clinton’s budget surplus and
reduced tax income while sponsoring two wars creating a huge
budget deficit. Barack Obama became the country’s first
African heritage President. The Affordable Care Act was
passed during his first term, but an intractable stalemate with
the Republican House of Representatives and on-going budget
issues have stopped progress on many fronts.
Tension rose between the United States and Russia when the
Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and suppressed Poland’s
Solidarity movement. Tensions were reduced when Mikhail
Gorbachev became premier. He was reasonable to work with as
he realized that the Soviet Union did not have the economic
strength to compete with the US. The Berlin Wall that had been
constructed in 1961 came down in 1989. The Soviet Union was
dissolved, but Russia retained a commonwealth arrangement
with some of the ethnic republics. After 1989, the US was the
only super-power for awhile. It did not support the UN all the
time as it chose its own alliances and actions when it suited. In
South Africa apartheid ended in 1994. In the East, Japan’s
economy had melted down on badly overvalued real estate and
was not recovering quickly. This should remind you of the US
recession’s primary cause in 2008.
Globalization, trading blocks, the Internet, and e-trading
changed everything. Dot com stocks climbed far beyond
company earnings, and driven by greed, the market crashed in
2001. Sound familiar? Globalization saw a rapid rise in out-
sourcing and off-shoring.
The Middle-East saw wars between Israel and its neighbors in
1967 and 1073. President Carter worked to create dialogue
between Egypt and Israel. In 1979, the Shah of Iran was forced
from office and replaced by a theocratic government under the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Iran moved away from the
westernization experienced under the Shah. In 1980 Iran was
invaded by Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and a stalemate ensued

until 1988. In 1990, Hussein invaded Kuwait. The first Gulf
War followed with a US lead coalition driving his army out of
Kuwait but leaving Hussein in power. Iraq used equipment
mostly from Russia, and it proved seriously inferior to the US
hardware.
Early Modernism was maybe a golden age, but its adherents
harbored doubts about traditional ethics, morality, and religion.
It was a culture of the masses. Late Modernism was Existential
with a loss of faith in past and future. Art was stripped of all
extras.
Postmodernism in the late 70s returned to an optimistic view of
history. People tended to think good was going to happen, the
world would be stable, and man could again look to the past and
future. People went back toward the roots of western tradition.
The feeling of optimism existed until 2008 in spite of all the
world’s issues. Even terrorism such as the first attack on the
WTC in 1993, the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, and the
second WTC attack in 2001 were brief interludes in the era’s
generally optimistic outlook that survived the terrorism, wars,
the early 1990’s recession, and AIDS. The Great Recession
beginning in 2008 seems to have tempered optimism pretty
substantially.
Advances in medicine bolstered optimism. DNA work and stem
cells offer great possibilities. Advancing science also poses
questions in areas such as cloning and genetically altered food.
Cell phones and other technology advances seriously erode
privacy, and Orwell’s, 1984, seems off mostly in its date!
Pope, now Saint, John XXIII (1958-1963) called the Second
Vatican Council to order, but he did not live to see its
conclusion. Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) saw Vatican Council II
to its conclusion and implemented many of its reforms. Pope,
now Saint, John Paul II (1978-2005) was the first non-Italian to
be Pope in 455 years. He helped hasten the fall of the USSR.
He reached out to other religions, but he was a conservative on
most gender and social issues. Pope Benedict XVI served from
April 2005 until retiring in February of 2013. Sex and financial

scandals rocked the church during his reign. Pope Francis of
Buenos Aries, Argentina assumed his position on March 13,
2013. His inclusionary style and care for the poor have resulted
in much acclaim as has his simplistic life style that he also
urges on the church’s bishops and cardinals.
Islamic radicalism or militarism is very active. Groups ranging
from Al Qaeda to Hezbollah, to Hamas, to the Muslim
Brotherhood, to the Taliban create pressure militarily and
politically on mainstream Islam and to the West as well. They
are alternatives for many who suffer under dysfunctional,
corrupt regimes, or who wish to raise strong voices against
Israel and the West. Russia is again saber rattling under
Vladimir Putin as Ukraine teeters on the edge of civil war.
North Korea continues to appear unstable as it seeks to have
nuclear weapons and delivery systems and as it keeps tensions
high with South Korea, Japan, and the USA.
In the arts, literature is mostly entertainment instead of classic
caliber writing though in South America, Columbian writer,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, won a Nobel Prize in 1967.
Postmodernist painters don’t exhibit a uniform style.
Abstraction plays a major role, and much of the Neoclassicism
of the 20th century looks like Post Impressionism of the late
1800’s. Music is all over the board from rap and hip hop to
rock, in its many variations. Opera, symphonies, musical
theater, jazz and blues continue to have significant audiences.
Music can now be accessed through many forms of technology.
Hum 104, Lecture notes 2014, class VI
Chapter 21, Age of the Masses and Zenith of Modernism, 1914-
1945
This was also an age of crisis. The era began with the Great
War, followed by the Bolshevik Revolution, the Great
Depression, and another great war, World War II. It was also
the era where the common man moved onto center stage and
challenged the Bourgeoisie as they had once challenged the
aristocracy.

The Great War, World War I, happened because of the central
European powers’ desire to reestablish their place of
preeminence that had not been theirs for 200 years. Western
Europe was organized as the Triple Entente and was made up of
Great Britain, France, and Russia. The central powers of
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were joined by treaty as
the Triple Alliance. The Entente had as a goal the stopping of
Germany’s expansion. Don’t forget that Germany had only
been truly unified since 1871 through the efforts of William I
(Wilhelm I), King of Prussia and his Prime Minister, Otto von
Bismarck. After Wilhelm I’s death in 1888, Wilhelm II (Kaiser
Wilhelm of War I) fired Bismarck and made the decisions that
lead Germany to the war. The Great War became the great,
expensive, deadly stalemate from 1914-1917. It was trench
warfare as the machine gun proved to be a great people killer,
and no offensive technology had yet been proven as its equal.
Mustard gas incapacitated many and left lungs scarred for life.
Fresh troops made available by the USA’s entry into the war in
1917 more than made up for Russia’s withdrawal because of the
Bolsheviks. Unrestricted submarine warfare brought the US
into the conflict. The war ended with Germany’s surrender in
1918 and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The
site was the same as that of the 1871 treaty imposed upon
France after Prussia’s victory. France had felt humiliated then,
and Germany felt that they were being purposefully humiliated
in 1919. Their opinion was shared by John Maynard Keynes,
the English treasury’s principal representative at the treaty
conference. He withdrew from the discussions, as he thought
the resulting treaty would be too burdensome on Germany. In
addition the treaty called for a League of Nations to help
resolve issues so that no future war would take place. The
concept was strongly supported by President Woodrow Wilson,
but the League remained too weak to be effective, largely
because the US congress did not ratify the treaty and the US
never became part of the League. Hence, the seeds were sown
for another Great War.

In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire ended as Turkey had
chosen the wrong side. In the early 1920s, the area was
partitioned by the victors. France established a sphere of
influence that included Syria and Lebanon. England got
Transjordan (Jordan), Palestine, and the Mesopotamian
provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra which it turned into the
Kingdom of Iraq. This fusion ignored deep differences between
Sunni and Shia Muslims and tribal and ethnic differences among
Arabs, Kurds, Persians and Assyrians. 1917’s Balfour
Declaration by Britain supported Palestine as a national home
for the Jewish people. Egypt became a British protectorate,
Greece got Thrace and the Aegean Islands; Armenia became a
free country; and Turkey emerged from the rubble of the
Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia was founded by Ibn Saud as a
fundamentalist Islamic State. It is a major player on the world
stage as the home of Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina,
and later (1938) because of discovering huge oil reserves. In
Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and had 2
million members across the Arab world by 1945.
In Great Britain and France, boom times returned, but none of
the wealth went to helping Central Europe. The United States
brought its Expeditionary Force home and returned to the
position of isolationism. Great economic boom times filled the
1920s only to be undone by “uncontrolled greed and no
government monitoring” that lead to the stock market crash of
1929. (Scenes from The Great Gatsby). This ultimately
triggered the Great Depression in the United States (Scenes
from The Grapes of Wrath) that lead to severe economic
problems in Europe. Great Britain and France scrapped free
trade but did not intervene to lower unemployment. Germany
failed to act, and the economic disaster lead to the end of the
Weimar Republic. Franklin Roosevelt fought the Depression
and its huge unemployment with a number of government
programs including the New Deal’s CCC, PWA projects, Social
Security, etc. Still, nothing brought the economy fully back
until World War II got manufacturing going full speed. As the

west suffered, Japan flourished. While nominally headed by
God on Earth, Emperor Hirohito, the military/industrial
complex drove a militaristic, expansionist course. While the
west was distracted, Japan invaded Manchuria and China and
later moved into the East Indies and Southeast Asia.
Socially in the United States, prohibition was ushered in by the
18th Amendment in 1920 and lasted until repealed by the 21st
Amendment in 1933. Women got the vote in 1920 as a result of
the 19th Amendment. In civil rights, separate but equal was still
in force including in the military. Women had gotten the vote
in Britain in 1918. Britain now faced issues with its Indian
colony. Mistrust between Hindus and Muslims kept dissonance
fractured until Mohandas Gandhi became leader of the National
Indian Congress in 1921. His legal training, knowledge of east
and west, and his commitment to amity between Hindus and
Muslims allowed him to lead the movement that was non-
violent and lead to Indian independence.
Politically, as of 1919 democracy was in place in most of
Europe. But by 1939 Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain,
Bulgaria, and Rumania were totalitarian. That is, the
government made all decisions including proper art, literature,
thought, etc. It decided what was truth. Russia was communist
under Josef Stalin; Italy and Germany were Fascist under
Mussolini and Hitler respectively. Spain’s monarchy was
overthrown in the early 1930s. Conservatives, including the
Catholic Church sought to restore the monarchy, and a civil war
ensued. The conservatives won, and General Francisco Franco
assumed power in 1939. The civil war gave Germany and Italy
an opportunity to practice for the coming total war. They
supported General Franco while Russia backed the losers.
Ernest Hemmingway was moved by this conflict to write For
Whom the Bell Tolls.
Hemmingway was a fairly traditional writer who mostly enjoyed
the man sports of drinking with friends, and chasing beautiful
women. F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of that circle of authors,
including Hemmingway, with one foot in the Paris scene. Other

writers of the era were more prone to experiment in an effort to
control instability and impose order. Stream of consciousness
writing featured narrative of the characters’ unedited thoughts
through whom readers experienced the story. James Joyce’s
masterpiece was Ulysses, and its last 45 pages had no
punctuation. Virginia Woolf in Great Britain and William
Faulkner in the United States wrote in similar fashion. Other
writers had other approaches. D. H. Lawrence in England
expressed modernism through sexual themes such as found in
Lady Chatterley’s Lover which was about personal freedom.
The Englishman, George Orwell wrote Animal Farm to satirize
Russian communism, but he also wrote 1984 to warn about the
wider threat of repression and totalitarianism. NSA anyone?
In poetry, William Butler Yeats was a romantic writer who
began to change in 1910 and became fully anti-British after
their heavy handed response to 1916’s Easter Rebellion (The
Easter rising was an attempt by Irish republicans to free Ireland
from being part of Great Britain. The English were in the midst
of the Great War, and put the rising down with heavy weapons
that included artillery). Ex-pat American writer, T. S. Eliot
wrote The Wasteland which described the hollowness of modern
life. On the other hand, he also wrote Cats. In the US Langston
Hughes, the black modernist poet wrote of the movement of
rural blacks to the cities and to the Harlem Renaissance of the
1920s. Zora Neale Hurston wrote of a black woman’s
experience in a white male world in Their Eyes Were Watching
God. Painting in the Modernist style moved close to the
abstract. Picasso was an abstract painter while Salvador Dali
was more surreal as he added bizarre twists, often including
sexual innuendo to ordinary things. Photography continued to
evolve as an art form, and pictures began to tell stories about
ordinary people.
Mass entertainment gained a wider audience than did
Modernism. Movies went from short, silent, and humorous to
more serious topics, to full length with sound. Music moved to
swing with jazz and blues still there. All the forms reached

wider audiences through radio and records. Duke Ellington,
Billie Holliday, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald were
leaders on the scene.
We’ll talk about World War II next week.
Hum 104, Lecture notes 2014, class V
Chapter 20, Age of Early Modernism 1871-1914
Peace and prosperity in Europe hid rampant nationalism,
aggressive imperialism, and growing militarism.
This was the 40+ year beginning of the Age of Modernism.
Modernism itself would last for 100 years. Middle classes
drove change, and their political power grew every day.
The first industrial revolution of the early 19th century was
mostly England, but the emerging second industrial revolution
saw Germany and the United States challenge her position.
Science and research improved processes and products. The
internal combustion engine came into being as did the wide
spread use of electricity. Telephone and radio also appeared.
Public education became secular and nearly universal. Its role
was to better prepare youth to enter the manufacturing
economy’s work force. Women began to move into careers
outside the home that included teaching, nursing, sales, and
clerical work. Some college programs opened to women as
well. Suffrage movements grew throughout the period. After
this time, women got the vote in England in 1918 and in 1920 in
the United States. Unified Germany’s government was
paramilitary. France waffled as its republicans and monarchists
failed to reach compromise to move forward. Great Britain’s
upper and middle class ruled, but they did pass some social
legislation to help the poorest citizens.
In the US, immigration was in full bloom, and though many
immigrants were not accepted at first, most eventually entered
the mainstream and contributed to the economy and to the
culture in general.
Imperialism saw European nations fight for colonies as sources
of raw materials and as new markets for manufactured goods.

France and Britain got the best of the colonies, especially on the
African continent, as Germany and Italy got the leftovers.
Colonial governments were established, trading companies
founded, and raw materials exploited. Most of Africa was under
colonial rule until the second half of the 20th century. The
United States, European nations, and Japan got south Pacific
possessions and trading rights to China.
Secret alliances were the norm and were thought to help
maintain peace. Primary alliances were the Triple Entente that
included France, Great Britain, and Russia, while the Triple
Alliance was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Meanwhile, after 1830 the Ottoman Empire continued to
decline. As a result, Europe expanded its influence more deeply
into the Islamic world through trade and conflict. This
incursion into North Africa was mostly by Britain and France,
while Russia and Austria were the big players in the Balkans.
Unfortunately, greater involvement did not lead to greater
understanding. The Muslim world continued to be
misunderstood. In the minds of Europeans and Americans, it
was thought to be an exotic, forbidden area filled with squalor
and crime. This view is known as Orientalism. From 1839-
1914 three consecutive sultans tried to westernize North Africa,
but they were constantly thwarted by conservatives who wanted
to return to the old ways, and by nationalists who sought
independence from Istanbul. The colonial powers, led by
England and the Dutch, took control of the East Indies.
England tried and failed to control Afghanistan but did add
India to the empire. Russia and Great Britain squabbled over
Persia and eventually partitioned it. Russia proved to be the
Ottoman Empire’s major threat to the north against whom two
wars were fought in Crimea, and those wars showed the
weakness of counting on England and France for help. Hence,
the Ottomans moved toward alliance with Germany. When war
broke out, Turkey sided with the Germans.
The peace ended in 1914 with the outbreak of World War. In
Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary (Bosnia); Archduke Franz

Ferdinand, heir to the throne, and his wife, Sophia, were
assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb who was part of a
movement to split the southern Slav portion of the nation away
to form a greater Serbia, later Yugoslavia. Austrians blamed
the Russian state of Serbia. Serbia’s response didn’t suit
Austria, so World War was game on.
Early modernists thought that the golden era was dawning. Self
government, good science and technology equaled a better
standard of living for many, but a mood of uncertainty was
beginning to creep in. Artists and thinkers questioned
traditional western ethics, values, and religion in general.
Artists came to believe that the creative art process was more
important than the completed work.
In psychology, Sigmund Freud challenged the Enlightenment
idea that man was fully rational. He thought that self (psyche)
was composed of the id (primitive instinctual drives and
desires, such as sex and aggression); super ego (the will of
society, i.e., conscience); and ego (the public face of the battle
between id and super ego, a balancing component). Carl Jung, a
contemporary of Freud, saw a collective universal unconscious
shared by all humans, and an individual personal unconscious.
Both Freud and Jung agreed that the conscious mind is a very
small part an individual’s personality. That belief is the
cornerstone of Modernism.
Religious groups began to work for social justice. They
supported settlement houses and soup kitchens. Some
evangelicals felt betrayed by the liberalization of US
Christianity, and became fundamentalists. They held to the
infallibility of the Bible, the need to be born again, the truth of
miracles, and belief in the resurrection. The movement led to
the founding of the Church of God, the Pentecostal Church, the
Assemblies of God, etc. They shared the belief that speaking in
tongues was a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
In Germany, Bismarck tried to keep Catholics from being part
of government. When he didn’t manage that, he made peace
with the new pope. Still, his government maintained oversight

of priests and continued to expel Jesuits until 1917.
Literature was all over the place. French writer Emile Zola and
Russian writer Anton Chekov championed naturalism. They
wrote detailed stories about real life situations. Henrik Ibsen of
Norway wrote about middleclass life in his country and of
problems common to those people. A decadent movement in
writing was led by Oscar Wilde who wrote with a relaxed view
of moral requirements.
In science Mendel’s 1865 genetic theories were substantiated by
others. Madam Marie Curie, a Polish and naturalized French
physicist and chemist discovered the radioactive elements
polonium and radium. Nels Bohr solved for the structure of the
atom.
In engineering and architecture, carbon steel allowed taller
buildings to be constructed. Frank Lloyd Wright championed
the organic design for homes. The structure needed to fit with
its location. He designed the famous “Falling Waters” in
Pennsylvania that fit into a hillside and stream environment. A
home outside Phoenix was comfortable in its desert setting.
In art, Impressionism challenged the norms and France’s
Academy. Like the Realists it saw beauty in the everyday world
and often painted outdoors. From the Romantics, Impressionists
learned to break colors into component hues. The title,
Impressionists, started as a put down for their slapdash, messy,
non-traditional images. Monet was the most famous and
committed of the school. Manet, Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne,
Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent Van Gogh
were Impressionists, but some were also transitional to Post-
Impressionism. Cezanne moved toward abstraction and cubism.
Later, Pablo Picasso moved painting even closer to abstraction.
In music, Claude Debussy, was the Impressionist equivalent
with music that seemed to show color and mood. In the US,
jazz, blues, and ragtime appeared and were this country’s
musical contribution.

Hum 104, Lecture notes 2014, class IV
Chapter 18, Revolution, Reaction, and Cultural Response 1760-
1830
There were 3 major revolutions between 1760 and 1830. The
first and longest lasting was the Industrial Revolution.
Throughout the 18th century, small farm plots were
consolidated and enclosed by the wealthy land owners. This
made farming more productive. Advances in methods and
technology allowed a decrease in the number of workers, so
many farmers began moving toward towns. By the middle of
the century, conditions pushed England toward
industrialization. Population growth created workers and
markets. The era of peace and good financial management freed
money for investment. Colonies provided raw materials and
markets. The biggest changes in moving from an agricultural
and cottage industry based economy to industrialization were
the replacing of people with machines of production; replacing
people and animals as sources of power with water and steam
power; and the introduction of new and abundant raw materials
such as better coal and iron ore. Cottage industry was basically
eliminated. Furniture building, weaving, etc. moved from
workers’ homes to factories. Workers moved near the factories
and lived in squalor as capitalists had little regard for their
needs. Capitalists and workers were at extreme ends of the new
social order and relations were strained.
Adam Smith, the Scottish economist, advocated for the laissez-
faire (hands-off) system of capitalism. This classical economic
system was also advocated by Thomas Malthus and David
Ricardo who said that a free market system based on private
property would automatically regulate prices and profits to the
benefit of all. Smith based his Wealth of Nations on an
agriculture and commerce model, but business in the industrial
era saw it verifying their activities. Smith argued that the
entrepreneurs, because of enlightened self-interest, would get
rich but would also raise everyone’s standard of living if
government stayed out of business.

Malthus foresaw a world burdened by misery if population
continued to grow. Population grows geometrically while he
saw food availability growing arithmetically. Hence, war,
plague and other disasters were necessary to limit population.
His writing persuaded many in the middle classes that laborers
couldn’t be helped, because they were responsible for their own
thoughtless habits and deeds.
Ricardo wrote in his “iron law of wages” that laborers’ wages
would always hover around the subsistence level, and that the
workers would never be able to improve their standard of living
beyond that. Malthus and Ricardo argued that the working class
was inevitably mired in poverty.
The American Revolution saw its first skirmish between British
soldiers and colonials, who were upset with taxation without
representation, in 1775. The next year saw the Declaration of
Independence spell out what the colonials believed a nation
should look like. The war ended in favor of the colonies in
1783. The first form of government for the now independent
colonies was a confederation. It proved unsatisfactory, and a
representative democracy in republic form was instituted by
written Constitution and Bill of Rights beginning in 1789. It
featured the balance of power first advocated by John Locke
(1690) and Montesquieu (1748), and though it applied only to
free men, it was the first successful democracy since 5th
century BCE Greece.
The French Revolution began in 1789. It was much more a
class war than was its American precursor. The peasants, who
had no say in their relationships with the aristocracy, revolted.
The most violent period of time was 1792-1795 with 1793-1794
known as the Reign of Terror. The Guillotine got much of its
fearsome reputation during those years. A moderate republic
was formed in 1795, but it didn’t have power enough to
overcome the problems of unrest, a moribund economy, etc., so
they asked for help from the army. This resulted in the
republic’s overthrow by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. In 1804
he became emperor and remained so until 1815. Domestically,

he created a code of legal principles. He also invaded other
nations initiating the Napoleonic Wars. This upset Europe’s
balance of power, and caused other nations to ally against him.
His failed attempt to invade Russia in 1812, from which Hitler
learned nothing, signaled the beginning of the end. He was
defeated at Waterloo in 1815. England’s Duke of Wellington
won the land battle 10 years after Horatio Nelson’s English
fleet defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar. Nelson
was killed during the battle that restricted Napoleon to the
continent.
Islam and the West
After 1699s Treaty of Karlowitz, Ottoman rule over most
Christians in the Balkans ended. Ottomans were divided
between wanting to westernize or to stay true to the Qur’an and
Islamic teachings. Sultans struggled to keep the peace at home
and fought borderland wars against Russia who was sometimes
joined by Austria. Ottoman Crimea was lost to Russia in the
late 18th century. Seeing the Ottomans as weakened, Napoleon
invaded Egypt in 1798. It came under French influence and
gave them a stage for their successful 20 year effort to take
control of Algeria. Greece gained its independence from the
Ottomans in 1830 after a brutal 9 year war.
Socially, Neoclassicism ended and Romanticism began.
Romantics thought Neoclassicism was cold and artificial. They
glorified an unruly nature, unrestrained feelings, and mysteries
of the soul. Their art was emotionally unbounded and untamed.
In music Beethoven was the best known composer. He used the
classical forms of sonata, symphony, stringed quartets, but
made them longer to show feeling.
Chapter 19, Triumph of the Bourgeoisie 1830-1871
The Bourgeoisie were the well-to-do non-aristocrats. The
Proletariat were blue collar and under employed citizens, and
the two classes would repeatedly clash during the era. Socially
and artistically, Romanticism faded and was replaced by
Realism. Stories and paintings were about real people and their

everyday struggles. Politically, Liberalism promoted
guaranteed free speech, but mostly the rules allowed
bourgeoisie to be free of the aristocrats. They promoted
laissez-faire and the rich got richer while tightening control
over the workers.
Repressive policies imposed on France by the Congress Of
Vienna in 1815 after Napoleon’s defeat lead to revolt in 1830
(no one learned much from this come 1918). The revolt tossed
the last Bourbon king, but the new government became a tool of
the rich. Only male property owners could vote. In February of
1848, little revolutions began in Paris that overthrew rulers in
many European nations. But armies, aristocrats, and the church
rallied together to defeat usually disorganized rebels. Many
former rulers returned to power. After the failed revolutions,
the idealism of liberals, reformers, and nationalists gave way to
the unsentimental vision of politics backed by force known as
Realpolitik or power politics. Napoleon III, nephew of
Napoleon I, ruled with the help of the well-to-do middle class
and provided social services and subsidies to the poor.
Otto von Bismarck, Prime Minister of Prussia and future
architect of a unified Germany, said that only power could rule.
Britain, reached its apex. A liberal coalition extended voting
rights to many more, but it was still required to own some
property.
German states tended to reject liberalism and to embrace
militant nationalism. There was a real competition between
Austria and Prussia for control of central Europe. William I
became King of Prussia in 1861 and Bismarck was appointed
Prime Minister. In 1866 he united the German states and
principalities around Prussia at the expense of France and
Austria. Bismarck started a crisis that forced France to declare
war. Prussia won and in 1871 the first Treaty of Versailles
proclaimed the German Empire and sowed the seeds for World
War I.
Industrialization and technology began to shrink the world.
Railroads and steam boats connected people physically and

telegraph did the same verbally. Advances allowed raw
materials and factories to be located far apart. In 1866 a
telegraph cable crossed the Atlantic. National postal services
started. Steam ships shrunk the oceans, and the Suez Canal
opened making trips around the Horn of Africa unnecessary,
further shrinking the globe.
Class struggles continued as the rich again got richer and the
poor got slums. More white men got to vote, but not all could,
and only aristocrats were able to get some government posts.
Liberalism advocated for all individuals to have freedom from
external controls. People should have written guarantee to
freedom of speech and religion. Suffrage and laissez-faire
economics were the rule in England, France, and Belgium.
They were not the norm in Italy, Central and Eastern Europe,
and in tsarist Russia. Liberalism supported bourgeois values,
but socialism seemed the way of the future to many workers and
intellectuals. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels became authors
of the Communist Manifesto which became the bible of
socialists. Marx foresaw a revolt by the proletariat and their
initiation of a classless society.
Mainstream religions became evangelical. Protestant
evangelical movements affected all of the US traditions except
Lutheran and Episcopalian. In England Methodists were at the
core. All evangelicals focused on being reborn and on
sanctification, the redeeming of sinners by the Holy Spirit. The
movement became holiness which stressed living right after
being reborn. The YMCA, YWCA, and the Salvation Army got
their starts then as non-sectarian, self-help programs.
German Christians started to see that the Bible was written by
humans and was therefore capable of error and open to some
interpretation.
Science also seemed to assail the church teachings. The story
of creation in 6 days was more an interpretation than an error.
Darwinism was harder to reconcile. Louis Pasteur’s science
improved health by honoring the germ theory. He introduced
the importance of sanitation and using sterile technique to

prevent most infection and much disease. Art moved from
neoclassic to romantic to Realism. Bourgeois were not really
enlightened, so the liked less refined art. France created the
Royal Academy of Painting that certified whether a work met
their rules.
In writing Realism began to appear in the 1840s. It focused on
ordinary people without idealizing them. Art became a truth
instead of cold like Neoclassicism or exaggerated like
Romanticism. Hugo wrote of Jean Val jean in Les Miserables.
The Bronte sisters wrote Wurthering Heights (Emily) and Jane
Eyre (Charlotte). Transcendentalism, which was critical of
formal religion, rose in the US. Its adherents felt that the
divinity is accessible without it as the Divine Spirit is
everywhere in everything. Henry David Thoreau’s most
influential work, Walden, is the virtual bible of the green
movement. In Russia the Realists, Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,
Anna Karenina, and Fydor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment,
The Brothers Karamozov, were the literary elite. In the USthe
slave narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by
Douglas broke new ground. A new art form appeared, and it
was called photography.
Hum 104, Lecture notes class III
Chapter 16 Baroque II, Revolutions in Science and Politics
The time had arrived for the geocentric theory of the universe to
be found not valid. The first of the age to espouse the
heliocentric model was Polish thinker and astronomer,
Copernicus (1543). It was over a century later in 1687 that Sir
Isaac Newton proved it using mathematics. This age tried to
use simpler proofs to prove theories. Galileo used lenses from
Dutch lens grinders to make a telescope that could see stars not
visible to the naked eye. This technology ended theories such
as the moon having a smooth surface and only earth having a
moon when 4 of Jupiter’s could be seen. The theory of inertia
came into being, and Newton used math to prove the theory of

gravity.
Little happened in medicine, because the church still prohibited
the violation of a corpse. Hence, there were no dissections.
Technology produced a vertical clock with an hours and a
seconds pendulum. This was the most precise clock to that
time.
In political philosophy, Thomas Hobbs theorized absolutism.
He thought that an authority figure was needed to keep man’s
destructive impulses in check. John Locke believed man’s
nature was potentially good and that man could govern on his
own.
Don’t forget that exploration and expansion are in full bloom.
Ideas began to be spread among all interested and educated
people. Royal academies were founded in England and France
for that purpose.
Chapter 17, Age of Reason (1700-1789)
There were 4 major trends as the age began. They were:
continued growth in power for the sovereign, centralized states
of France, Great Britain (England and Scotland from 1707),
Prussia, Austria, Russia, and the Netherlands; return to
prominence of the aristocracy; rise of the middle class
politically and culturally; and the intellectual and cultural
movement of the enlightenment. The enlightenment saw truth
sought through math and science, rationalism, empiricism,
skepticism, and the scientific method.
In art, music and architecture the movement was from Baroque
to Rococo and then to Neoclassical. Movement was also away
from religious themes and toward the secular.
Politically, the era was pretty calm with no wars in Europe from
1715-1789. Don’t forget, however, that the American
Revolution involved Great Britain and, to a lesser extent,
France from 1775-1783. There was reasonable economic
growth, partly because of exploration and colonies. Population
had begun to shift from rural to urban. Aristocrats made up 3%
of the population, but they had most of the money and power.

The wealthier merchants were increasing and had the next
largest slice of the money.
Great Britain had turned to the German Hanoverian kings after
Queen Anne’s death in 1714. The House of Hanover, rulers of
the Hanover principality, stemmed from a great grandson of
James I. Of these kings, George I ruled from 1714-1727. His
primary interest was in Germany, and he allowed Parliament to
exercise most power in England. George II was king from
1727-1760. He, along with Austria and Prussia, got kind of
suckered into a 7 year war with France, but won. Great Britain
got France’s North American and Indian possessions. Great
Britain found itself on center stage in European affairs until the
early 20th century. George III (1760-1820) spent much time
quarreling with Parliament, and this distraction hastened the
American Revolution.
In France the monarchy began to be seen as inefficient as taxes
increased to support bureaucrats and armies. France lost wealth
and territory as a result of the 7 years war. This trend
continued after France supported the American colonies during
that revolution. French aristocrats began a resurgence during
the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774) and worked against him.
The commoners suffered under the pressure on Louis’ reign by
the aristocrats. Louis XVI (1774-1792) tried to begin social
reform, but it was too little too late. Most groups united against
the crown and aristocrats and the French Revolution began in
1789 and raged on for 10 years.
In Central Europe Prussia, Russia, and Austria were the power
players. Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great, made
Prussia into a first class power. In Austria under Maria Theresa
(House of Hapsburgs) and her son, Joseph, a fully fair tax and
economic system was created that modernized the nation. Much
of this progress was undone after Joseph’s death by his
successors who restored the aristocracy because of being scared
by the French Revolution.
Peter the Great started reform in Russia and made it a power.
Catherine the Great tried to continue the path, but the vastness

of Russia and its problems allowed autocrats to stop reform for
a century.
Neoclassicism after 1750 replaced Rococo. It looked it back to
antiquity with interest being generated by the unearthing of
Pompeii from Mt. Vesuvius’ lava. Grand history subjects
became favored.
This was also the age of the Philosophes.
Hum 104, Lecture notes 2014, class II
The High Renaissance and Early Mannerism
The High Renaissance lasted only about 26 years (1494-1520)
before giving way to Early Mannerism that lasted only until
1564. Both saw continued world exploration and colonization.
In addition these 70 years were one of the most brilliantly
creative periods in western history. The artists; Leonardo Da
Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo flourished as painters and
sculptors. Machiavelli wrote his famous, The Prince, where he
shifted the view of politics from being framed in religious and
moral terms to one that made it human and not necessarily
conforming to a higher plane. He believed in some form of
absolute monarchy where the well to do, or the nobles, or even
middle class men could play a role, but all final determinations
would be solely the responsibility of the monarch.
Of the great artists of the era, Michelangelo considered himself
a sculpture first, and then a painter, poet, and architect. As an
artist from Florence, he was a true Renaissance man for most of
his career. His painting of the Sistine Chapel showed the hope
for man that marked that age. His sculpture, David, also
showed that in the classic style with the clean body lines and
indications of strength. The pose was natural and free. His
statue, Pieta’ (Mary holding the crucified body of Jesus), done
in that timeframe had similar attributes.Twenty-five years later,
his painting of the Last Judgment and his later sculpture, Pieta’
, showed the anguish he felt after the Medici were forced to sign
a treaty that made Florence’s ruling family puppets of a foreign
power. The painting also reflected the tension between the

halves of the divided church, militant Protestant versus the
church now the Roman Catholic Church. The anguish also
reflected Michelangelo’s mourning of his own sinfulness and
man’s future doom.
Politically, the shift was toward states maintaining a balance of
power so that no one nation could be allowed to dominate.
Wars great and small were basically always present with only
the players changing from time to time.
Chapter 14
After the High Renaissance which lasted from the French
invasion of Italy in 1494 until the deaths of Da Vinci in 1519
and Raphael in 1520 ended, Early Mannerism began and lasted
until 1564. The sack of Rome by Charles V in 1527 and the
theological storm of the Reformation ushered Mannerism to the
front. It is a term recognized by far fewer people than many of
the other periods. Mannerist painters, sculptors, and architects
left the Renaissance’s imitation of nature and its devotion to
classical themes and ideals. Instead, odd perspectives and
renderings showcased the artists’ technical expertise and their
ideas of beauty. In general, the school rejected the idealist
version of man and espoused a negative image of human nature.
In this time of artistic change, events in Germany were leading
to the questioning of the church and to the Reformation.
Religiously, Martin Luther challenged the Roman Church and
created a permanent schism. His 95 theses dealt with the
indulgences and other church corruption. His goal was to
reform the one church, but the outcome went far beyond that
and led to several wars between the Holy Roman Empire and the
secular nation states. The events and writings of the period
were more widespread more quickly than those that went before
because of the invention of the printing press with movable type
in 1450. The Bible and other religious texts were among the
first available to a wider audience.
The religious upheaval caused a look to the past. Protestant
views saw the church unencumbered by the hierarchy and
bureaucracy of the Church at Rome. Martin Luther’s movement

saw the dawn of Northern or Christian Humanism. The
Protestants held that mankind was adrift in the universe but that
they could communicate with God through prayer. The basic
tenet was one of returning to the teachings of Jesus, and that
anyone of humble heart could pray directly to God. That led to
Protestants focusing on the Resurrection while the Catholic
Church continued to focus on the Crucifixion. The Roman
church continued to believe that it needed to protect mankind
from itself and be an intermediary between man and God.
The Dutch scholar, Desiderius Erasmus, was the most
outstanding of the early continental Humanists. He also spent
time in England with his English counterpart, Lord Chancellor,
Sir Thomas More. There, Humanists believed in the classic
education model of the Roman, Cicero, who emphasized study
of the classics and in a church modeled after Christ’s Sermon on
the Mount. Erasmus believed in man’s freewill which
contradicted Luther’s philosophy that only God’s grace could
save a man.
When the Reformation split the church, two basic causes were
found. One, western society had been changing since about
1350. The second was the timeless spiritual yearnings of
humans. The Reformation and split were inevitable because of
corruption inside the church, the rise of sovereign nations, the
decay of Medieval thought, and the revival of humanism. The
Church at Rome might have been able to stem the tide if it had
given doing so its full attention by getting the clergy in line, but
the 16th century popes were distracted by Italian politics and
worldly interests. Also, French and English monarchs had made
their churches basically free from papal authority. Germany
was still fractured, but many princes used church reform as a
rallying cry to weaken the control of Charles V and to make
their lands independent states outside papal jurisdiction. Unlike
the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant movement never had
one vision and always had several sects and traditions. The
Church of England’s Anglicanism steered a course between
Catholicism and the strict, angry god of John Calvin. With the

Church of England being the country’s state religion, neither
Catholics nor Calvinists could be part of English government or
other public life for almost 275 years.
A counter-reformation launched under Pope Paul III (1534-
1549) saw the now called Roman Catholic Church regain much
of its moral ground and new monastic orders sprang up to meet
the needs of both the church and its adherents.
Differences between the Lutheran rebels and the Roman Church
resulted in war between Charles V’s Spanish forces and
Lutheran forces from 1546-1555. In 1556 Phillip II became the
Spanish king and champion for the Roman Catholic cause.
Catholic leaders ruled Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria.
Protestants ruled the Scandinavian countries. England was
ruled by Catholic Queen Mary, but in 1558 her Protestant half
sister, Elizabeth, ascended to the throne. Elsewhere, religious
allegiance was still a toss-up. Phillip, flush with new world
riches, dominated European politics. He was also able to expel
the Muslim Ottomans from Spain. His expansion was halted by
the defeat of his grand armada when he sought to invade
England in 1588. Phillip died that same year and Spanish
fortune began to decline. All of Europe was divided into many
states following various Christian religions and sects.
This time period from 1564-1600 is referred to as Late
Mannerism. The Spaniard, El Greco, who had also been
influenced by Venice and Crete was the most recognized
painter. Also in Spain, Miguel Cervantes was writing, and Don
Quixote was by far his best known work.
England enjoyed its Golden Age throughout the reign of
Elizabeth from 1558-1603. In English literature, the works of
William Shakespeare dominated. They have the staying power
of classic literature and are still taught, read, and produced
today.
Chapter 15
The next age is now known as the Baroque Age, and it lasted
from 1600-1715. The term was originally coined by 18th
century artists to put down 17th century artists. Like Gothic

before it, Baroque no longer has any negative connotation.
By 1600 Europe was no longer concerned with popes and Italian
city states. New secular rulers had absolute power. The
continent had 5 major and balanced powers: England, France,
Austria, Prussia, and Russia. They none shared power with any
church. The 5 nations developed professional bureaucrats, and
the powers of nobles decreased. Professional diplomats became
the norm as did standing armies. France was the first among the
equals. Ruled by Henry IV, the Bourbon Dynasty was pretty
benign, but the king was assassinated, and the real power went
to Cardinal Richelieu. He moved toward absolute power into
the rule of King Louis XIV. Cardinal Richelieu was succeeded
by the equally powerful Cardinal Mazakahn, but upon his death,
King Louis took all power. Louis XIV was the state.
In England after Elizabeth died, King James I (1603-1625)
(James VI of Scotland) ruled, but parliament had some power of
check and balance. James was succeeded by Charles I (1625-
1649) who was forced from the throne by the Puritans who
began a republican form of government, the Commonwealth,
under Oliver Cromwell. He became a military dictator, was
forced from control and succeeded by Charles II. Charles II
was forced to abdicate and was followed by his daughter Mary
II and her husband, William III (1689-1702). They ruled
together and established a limited monarchy sharing power with
a parliament.
On the European mainland four powers fought the 30 Years
War. It was the last great continental war between Roman
Catholics and Protestants. France profited most and Germany
suffered most as the largest part of the war was fought on her
soil. They basically lost a generation. That became a habit!
Prussia emerged as a great power, but Germany remained
divided. France struggled against Catholic Spain through
another series of wars until defeated by most of the rest of
Europe in 1713. Remember balance of power. France kept
conquests to its present border; Prussia gained territory; and
England got Gibraltar. (This turns out to be a really big deal!)

England also got French Canada and became the world’s trading
power. Militarily, rifles with bayonets replaced bows and pikes
as infantry weapons. Feudal lords as people of power
disappeared.
In households heavy painted Gothic furniture was replaced by
the refined Italian look. Much decorative stuff was imported
from China. Furniture pieces had specific functions. Fireplaces
for cooking were built into kitchen walls and replaced open
wood fires. Art moved back to church themes as the churches
were the artists’ major patrons. Sculpture again became part of
architecture. Much of it decorated niches and recessed bays or
stood on pedestals in religious structures. Secularly, Louis XIV
had the palace and garden at Versailles designed specifically for
himself, the Sun King!
In Calvinist lands, restrained Baroque was much more simple
and in line with their democratic sentiments and common human
experiences. The Calvinist Netherlands was the center for
painting until about 1675 when military defeats ended their
economic capabilities, and they became also rans. The greatest
of their painters was Rembrandt.
Baroque theater was very controlled as it had once been in
Greece. Plays had to represent no more than one 24 hour day;
there could be no scene changes; and there needed to be a
single, uncomplicated plot. None of them survived!
In England, John Milton (1608-1674), a solid Puritan, was a
professional bureaucrat to Oliver Cromwell. As a poet, his
greatest work was Paradise Lost, which told of Lucifer and the
rebellious angels; Adam and Eve’s fall from grace; and Christ’s
redemption of humanity. It was partially a response to Dante’s
(1265-1321) Divine Comedy, the three book length tale of his
imagined journey through Christian after-life and testified to
man’s freewill. As different as Milton and Dante were, both
believed that man’s destiny depended on man’s decisions.

Dr. William Cohee
Lecture notes: Humanities 104, Class I
What do we know?
From about 6000-3000 BCE, man mined and used copper. By
3000 BCE bronze was being produced, and gold and silver were
being worked. Around 2000 BCE iron and steel came into use.
By 500 BCE, most weapons were made from them. No army
was victorious using other metals for weapons.
Writing developed in several places including Sumeria in
Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE. Since history is written
record, this is the beginning of recorded history. The same
civilization introduced the lunar calendar, a math computation
system, etc. Remember, this course is western cultures; China
introduced much at similar time or earlier.
Hammurabi’s Code emerged around 1700 BCE. Judaism
emerged about 2000 BCE, and became the first religion to
recognize the God of Abraham as the God.
The Hellenic Age of Greece began around 479 BCE and is the
first of the classical civilizations in the west. Democracy
appeared in this age but disappeared by the beginning of the
Roman rule over the known western world in 148 BCE when
Rome defeated Macedonia a 4th and last time. The Roman
Republic lasted from 509 BCE until 44 BCE and the Empire
lasted until 476 CE in the west and until 1453 CE in the east.
Christianity, the second religion to follow the God of Abraham
began when BCE moved to CE. The third religion of the God of
Abraham was begun by The Prophet Mohammed in 622 CE.
Philosophy and Man
Scholasticism began to develop around 1100 CE. It was a move
educationally from art to logic as a focus for schools and
universities. Instead of turning to the church for answers to
problems of understanding, human reasoning began to be
applied. The major issue of philosophy in this time was the
question of universals or not: ie do general concepts, such as

human being and church exist in reality or only in the mind.
The schools of thought were known as realism and nominalism.
The realists thought that the universals existed independent of
physical objects or the human mind. Nominalists say only
particular objects are real, so things like human being and
church exist only in particular instances. Peter Abelard said
that extreme realism denied individuality and was contrary to
the bible. His form of realism was moderate and held that
universals existed, but only as mental concepts and devises to
sharpen and focus thinking. When new translations of Aristotle
became available, his thinking supported much of Abelard’s.
Much of Aristotle’s (384-322 BCE) work became available via
Latin translations of medieval Arabic translations from the
original Greek.
In the 12 hundreds, Scholasticism continued to grow. Learning
and law were systemized. Leading practitioners were Gratian,
who catalogued a manual for canon law with more than 4000
entries. Peter Lombard wrote 4 books cataloging most of
Christian faith under the Trinity, Creation and Sin, the
Incarnation, and the Virtues, and the Sacraments. Islamic
thinker, Rushd or Averroes was an Aristotle scholar who wrote
major commentaries on Aristotle’s beliefs concerning the
eternity of matter and the denial of individual immortality.
Scholars reading these commentaries in Paris believed that
these writings could be reconciled with Christian doctrine. By
1255, there was dispute over the teaching of Aristotle’s
Metaphysics and writings on natural science. Averroists wanted
to keep philosophy and theology separate, but others said this
was a double truth approach. Thomas Aquinas reconciled the
breach with the middle way which gave Aristotle a central role
in theology while honoring traditional beliefs. He advocated
the study of nature and natural phenomena as ways to discover
God’s purposes. Hence, with some exceptions, a tradition of
rational thought that arose in Hellenic Greece and passed
through medieval Islam, was introduced to Renaissance thought
and lead toward the Scientific Revolution that would introduce

modern times.
By the late middle ages, Aquinas’ via media (Thomism) was
being attacked and called the Via Antiqua. The Via Moderna
made a complete separation between faith and reason. Via
Antiqua disappeared then until the 19th century. Via Moderna
was championed by William Ockham who felt that faith and
reason were both valid but separate paths to truth. Humans can
have clear, distinct knowledge only of the physical world. No
real knowledge of the spiritual world can be gained through
reason or the senses. 14th century scholars such as Robert
Grosseteste, and Roger Bacon refined the experimental
scientific method and foreshadowed the approach of modern
science.
The Middle Ages were once called the Dark Ages on the basis
of the feeling that light had disappeared from the world with the
fall of the Roman Empire in the west in 476 CE. The time is
now called Middle or Medieval and has no basic negative
connotation. As the Medieval period ended at different times in
different places, the Renaissance began to emerge.
In the early Renaissance, most of the 15th century, Italy
consisted of separate states including the Republic of Venice,
the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, The Papal States,
and the Kingdom of Naples. They warred among themselves for
the first half of the 15th century. Florence, the capital of
Tuscany, was most prominent. It went from republic, to
oligarchy, to autocracy (Medici family).
The Papacy had reunited in Rome after having been split
between Rome and Avignon, France. It brought artistic wealth
to the era but lowered its morale standing by accepting bribes
for church offices. Pius II was most representative of
Renaissance popes because of his interest in Greek and Roman
classicism, the arts, and his ability to wage war or to depend on
diplomacy. Sixtus IV had the Sistine Chapel built and then
adorned with the efforts of Botticelli, Perungi, and
Michelangelo.
Philosophy began to move toward individual fulfillment instead

of social and religious conformity. Humanism gained influence
and scope. It implied a concern with things Greek and Roman,
but it also expressed itself in history, rhetoric, poetry, and
philosophy. Schools sprang up throughout Italy that expressed
the Renaissance ideal of education which was to free or liberate
the mind. They read classic literature and practiced rhetoric.
Art returned to being light and beautiful. The female nude was
reintroduced, though always modestly posed, for the first time
since Greece and Rome. Botticelli was the first to move in that
direction. Sculpture and painting became art forms independent
of architecture. Filippo Brunelleschi invented linear
perspective. It provided a math based formula to allow a two
dimensional surface to show the third dimension, depth. In the
1800s, early cameras proved his equation. The Cathedral Dome,
built between 1420-1436 in Florence, was done by Brunelleschi
and rises 367’ above the floor. Mail nudes reappeared in
sculpture with Donatello’s bronze David. The marble David of
great fame was done by Michelangelo beginning in 1501.
Leanardo Da Vinci was one of the great minds and talents of the
era. His painting of the Last Supper brought fame during his
lifetime while the Mona Lisa was discovered after his death. It
brings him recognition as an immortal of western art.

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Hum 104 Lecture Notes on Globalization, Terrorism and Postmodernism 1970-2014