The Modern World, Part One: Global History from 1760 to 1910

The first half of a global survey

Part one of this Coursera survey treats modern history as a single global story. It opens with the political and economic upheavals of the late 1700s and follows the transformation of the world through the 1800s.

The course closes at the point where those changes seem to outrun the institutions meant to manage them. Throughout, it keeps returning to the question of why events unfolded as they did, and to the human choices behind the answers.

Who it suits

• Beginners who want a global rather than national view of the period
• Learners who want to connect the revolutions of the 1700s with later events

It is labelled as a beginner course, so it is a reasonable first look at the period.