1. Main Currents of Modern History
Introduction
BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Hyderabad

2. Objective: The course purports to provide an overview of
some of the major events and processes from the
mid/late 12th century CE till the early 20th century. It also
aims at acquainting the student with select aspects of
the historian’s craft.
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Course
Hyderabad Campus

3. BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Textbook & References
Text Book:
Banerjee, Ajoy Chandra, A History of the Modern World: 1763 and after, (Hyderabad:
Universities Press, 1995). This was used previously in this course, and is very dated.
Therefore, the present course would rely on the readings listed below. Most of these
readings are chosen from the writings of historians specializing in a particular field.
Reference:
Boyd, Kelly, ed., Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, 2 vols., (London: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 1998)
Tucker, Aviezer, ed., A companion to philosophy of history and historiography (Singapore:
Wiley Blackwell, 2009).
Bayly, Christopher A., The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914, (Delhi: Blackwell
Publishing, 2004).
Hyderabad Campus

4. • What is History – Herodotus, E.H. Carr, Rashomon
• Middle Ages – Religion, Society, Polity, Name of the Rose
• European Renassaince – art, politics, coming of the book
• Lutheran Reformation – socio-religious & political changes
• Discovery of America – early history
• Elements of Scientific Revolution – Copernicus to Kepler
• Modern Economic History – Capitalism, Industrial Rev.
• Enlightenment – French Rev.
• American Rev. – Rights, Republicanism, Judicial power
• 19th Century European Expansion - Africa
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
COURSE PLAN
Hyderabad Campus

5. Course Plan
• Concept of ‘End of History’ – Modernism, Post Modernism
• New trends in Modern World – Research, Universities,
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Writing and other models
• Marginal Actors – Patriarchy, Environmental History
• 13 Units – 40 classes
• 15% - Quiz (Open Book – Daily)
• 20% - Assignment
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6. BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Exams
Hyderabad Campus
Component Duration Weightage (%) Remarks
Test I 60 min. 15 Closed Book
Test II 60 min. 15 Closed Book
Assignments + Quiz 20 + 15 Open Book
Comprehensive Exam 3 hrs. 35 Open Book

7. HEREDOTUS
History – an account brought about by rulers, mostly knaves and
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
soldiers and mostly fools – Ambrose Bierce
Edward Gibbon – the register of crimes, follies and misfortunes
of mankind
Jane Austen - …all wars and plagues, the quarrels of the mighty,
the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all
Origin – 2nd half of 5th century BC in Greece
Historia – to undertake research
Herodotus and Thusydides – a generation apart
Cicero – Herodotus – pater historiae (Father of History)
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8. Herodotus
First to undertake sorting of myth from fact
‘autopsy’ – Greek word for ‘seeing for oneself’
Greco-Persian wars
Human sources; human powers of analysis; ethnographic
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accounts
Conspicuous lack of Greek chauvinism
Criticism: doubt over journeys – text peppered with oracles,
prophesies and declarations of beliefs – how to locate
‘history’ in a work that includes a sense of divine
presence in every major battle?
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9. Critique
• Creates space for audience along with Gods
• His intrusions into the text – ordinary person wrestling
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with unruly material
• Engaged in a constant dialogue
• Several versions of historical events – sometimes
supporting, sometimes leaving the choice
• Know thyself
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