This course covers the history of the major intellectual movements of the modern era in the West from the Renaissance to the late 20th century, focusing on developments in science, the arts, and political philosophy in western Europe. The course covers major issues in philosophy, the arts (fine art, music, and literature) and popular thought in the context of their times.  The course reviews the birth of philosophical thought in the ancient Western world through the Middle Ages. It then covers Renaissance challenges to traditional thinking, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, early political philosophy, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Conservatism, Liberalism, Democracy, Socialism, modern irrationalism in political thinking, nationalism, antisemitism, fascism, totalitarianism, communism, modernism,  post-modernism and other strands of Western thought. Student will read about these movements along with selections written by the original authors (in English translation).