Recap

So this blog is to serve kind of as a recap of the course. I personally really enjoyed it. I haven't taken a survey course since high school, and I enjoyed it much more than I anticipated, especially since I'm used to the more specific history classes. One of the things that I have enjoyed the most about this course is being able to observe and analyze the change over time in Europe over the course of 500 years.
I never really studied Europe that much; I've mainly stuck to American history. That said, studying Europe has helped me gain a better understanding of where America stands in the grand scheme of world and European history. It's helped me understand America much better, which I really appreciate, switching gears and understanding America in the context of European history rather than vice versa. It was interesting to hear different dates and events in European history and being able to line them up to occurrences in American history.
I learned so much in this class which has broadened and deepened my understanding of history in general, but particularly of French history. As a French major, I have had some experience with French history, particularly dealing with Haussman and Violet-le-Duc, but because much of these classes were language-based, much what little history we discussed was cursory at best. I feel a lot better knowing that I have the knowledge of the history of a people whose language I speak.
Overall, I found this course to be extremely rewarding and will take much of the knowledge I acquired with me in my graduate study. I orignally took this course to satisfy credit so I can graduate next week, but I ended getting so much more out of it.