Brain Puzzles – I Love Writing Essays

June 7 2025

After two semesters and this summer class, one thing I’m learning about myself is how much I enjoy writing essays, putting texts in conversation, connecting dots = critical thinking. It’s like putting together a puzzle and it makes my brain happy. I’m also a title nerd. I love creating titles, especially edgy, attention grabbing titles. I wish I could linger a bit longer with so much of the material. I’m saving everything for when I (hopefully) have time!

Professor feedback for my Modern World essay:

Camilla,
This is a fascinating paper, linking the emergence of feminism to the printing press, the spread of literacy, etc. As you point out, Martin Luther and Olympe de Gouges were not the first to question the church and/or patriarchy, but it was difficult to spread those ideas without the right technology. Print was a crucial catalyst for the spread of radical new ideas. The paper also does a great job of connecting the emergence of first-wave feminism with a number of other radical movements: Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Reformation, etc. It was a period of change and feminists were involved in all of these movements. It’s not only a tour de force of key moments from our class, but also a thoughtful contextualization of the emergence of western feminism.

Great work on this,
Dr. Morse

Update: Five Days Down – This is Wild

5 days down of the 14 day compressed UNR class, The Modern World. 9 more days to go! Midterm exam is next week. This is wild!

We began with Hamlet as he was perhaps the first modern character, struggling with doing what he was supposed to do and wanting to think for himself and investigate.

Hamlet (Modern, Editor’s Version)

I also watched Kenneth Branagh’s film, Hamlet. At 4 hours in length, it is the complete dialogue. That’s why I chose this version. I wanted to deepen my understanding. I didn’t look at the cast names and was continually surprised by the big name actors and actresses in the film. Made my heart so happy when Robin Williams walked into a scene!

Modern History Sourcebook: Martin Luther (1483–1546): Address To The Nobility of the German Nation, 1520
The Three Walls Of The Romanists

Nicolaus Copernicus
On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543)

Chapter 6: On the Immensity of the Heavens in Relation to the Magnitude of the Earth
Galileo Galilei, Excerpt from The Sidereal Messenger (1610)
THE SIDEREAL MESSENGER

The New Organon: or True Directions Concerning the Interpretation of Nature
Francis Bacon

The Essays of Montaigne
Of Cannibals

Letter to King Ferdinand of Spain, describing the results of the first voyage
Christopher Columbus (1493)

Mary Wortley Montagu
LETTERS (1716-1718)

Charles de Secondat, Baron deMontesquieu from THE SPIRIT OF LAWS (1748)

Olaudah Equiano
from THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN (1789)

Modern History Sourcebook: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
CHAPTER XIII:
OF THE NATURAL CONDITION OF MANKIND AS CONCERNING THEIR FELICITY AND MISERY

Modern History Sourcebook John Locke: Two Treatises of Government, 1690
CHAPTER II: Of the State of Nature

Adam Smith
For Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

IMMANUEL KANT
An Answer to the Question: “What is Enlightenment?”
Konigsberg, Prussia, 30th September, 1784.

Emmanuel Sieyes
from WHAT Is THE THIRD ESTATE?(1789)

The Black Jacobins
TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE AND THE SAN DOMINGO REVOLUTION SECOND EDITION, REVISED
C.L.R. JAMES

Declaration of the Rights of Man – 1789
National Assembly

Olympe de Gouges, “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Woman-Citizen” (1791)

Mary Wollstonecraft
From Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein – reading for next week

For extra credit, we were to find a meme that ties in with our readings from last week. The printing press changed the world. It’s unbelievable that half the population seem to want a return to pre-Modernism and pre-Enlightenment.

The Modern World = Compressed Version

May 18 2025

Begins tomorrow: The Modern World = An entire semester packed into a mini-session of 14 days. I’ve truly lost my mind. 🤔 Hey little Camilla, if you only knew the adventures you’ve got in store, whew! 💥💥💥

Analyzes Europe’s legacy in shaping world ideas, institutions, and cultures. Includes Renaissance; Reformation; Enlightenment; Romanticism; development of science and industry; political revolutions; colonialism; postcolonialism; globalization.