This course will review nineteenth and twentieth century western societies and the connections forged between modern Western states and the rest of the world. Major topics covered will include (but are not limited to) the Atlantic Revolutions; the effects of and connections between industrialization and imperialism; the global crises leading to the First World War; the rise of fascism and communism, the Second World War, and the origins of the "Cold War"; decolonization in the Global South; and the development of modem civil rights movements.