A general survey course exploring specific themes and periods from c. 1500 to the present, and problematizing them in comparative, theory-intensive ways. Runs parallel to the SPS 102 (Humanity and Society II) freshman course, which serves as the teaching practicum of HIST 502 for SU graduate students in History who also serve as SPS 102 section instructors. Topics dealt with over the second semester include : the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent relativization of religion; the European Reconnaissance and the birth of the modern world-system; the rise and political economy of the merchant empires; the "military revolution" and the genesis of the modern state; science, scientism, and the Enlightenment; modes of sovereignty and legitimacy : the birth of modern politics and political science; proto- industrialisation; the wealth of nations; revolutions and modernity; the French Revolution and its legacy of "revolutionism"; the Industrial Revolution and its legacy of the "social question" in the 19th century; varieties of nationalism : European; east-southeast European, extra-European; debating the new imperialism, 1875-1914; imperialism, war, and revolution; the new toughness of mind : socialism and communism; the new toughness of mind : fascism and national socialism; the post-1945 world order; the collapse of communism, and problems of post- communism; new issues and conflicts of capitalist modernity at the end of the 20th century.