Just in case any interested students happen to look here for this kind of information:



PLSC 25710/35710, HIST 22703/32703. The Long 18th Century I.

Prerequisite for undergraduates: At least four quarters of political or social theory or philosophy (including core sequences); waived for students taking part in the French-language section (see below).


This course will examine political, legal, and economic thought in Western Europe from 1688 until the middle of the 18th century. It will focus on French and Scottish thought during the early years of the post-Glorious Revolution era and the Enlightenment, with particular attention given to Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Smith. Other authors read include Locke, Mandeville, Voltaire, Diderot, Hume, and Ferguson.

Students may take this course or its spring successor (on the American and French Revolutions, the American founding, and the English 1790s) without taking the other, but there will be considerable gains from taking them in sequence.

The winter quarter will include an optional French-language discussion section for students interested in reading selections from 18th-century French political thought in the original. Students who take part in this section and also write a paper in French may use this course toward a Romance Languages concentration or minor.