Hungarian Nationalism

“Beginning with the 1820's, the concept of limiting the nation to the nobility was successfully challenged by Hungarian writers, poets and essayists strongly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Great French Revolution. Liberal reformers wanted to extend the rights held by the nobility to the people, abolish serfdom and change Hungary into a modern parliamentary state.”

Citation: Lazlo Deme. Liberal Nationalism in Hungary. (1998). Questia.

Based on this quote, it would seem apparent that Hungary went through liberal nationalism. Liberal reformers wanted to give rights only the nobility held to everyone, do away with serfdom, and modernize the new Hungary by making it a parliamentary state. In addition, limiting the nation to the nobility, a romantic concept, was addressed and altered with the new Hungarian leaders. All of the points addressed in this quote point towards Hungary attempting to create a much more liberal government.

Italian Nationalism

Italian Nationalism had both liberal and romantic qualities, but their government mostly followed the ideas of liberal nationalism. One of the key reasons supporting this was Italy's forward steps towards allowing freedom of religion, and separating church and state (Politics and Government in Independent Italy, 3). A liberal country is one in which its citizens are free to worship whatever religion they want, and it is a major difference from romantic nationalism, in which everyone collectively follows the same religion. This major step proves Italy was moving towards liberal nationalism, and this is further exemplified by Italy creating a country-wide constitution and appointing both a lower and upper house to make sure everyone is represented (Politics and Government in Independent Italy, 2). Overall, while Italy did still maintain some elements of romantic nationalism, they made great strides to make their new government as close to liberal nationalism as possible.

Brueghel

How does this painting by Peter Brueghel reflect pre-modern life?

This painting reflects pre-modern life because of the community and group aspects represented. While none of the people in the painting seem particularly wealthy or happy, they are still enjoying themselves within the constraints of the party. Most importantly, they are celebrating as a jointed community, together as one group. One of the main themes of Brueghel's paintings is the community aspect of the people depicted, and this is shown in full force in the painting above. Lastly, it seems fairly clear that the musicians playing the bagpipes off to the side are volunteering at the party and aren't being paid for the services, another aspect of the pre-modern era. All of these ideas represent the communal aspects of pre-modern life, especially in the middle class depicted in the paintings.

Expectations

I've never been in a class with anywhere near the amount of technology being used than in this class, so this is going to be an entirely new experience for me. I think that this will be a unique experience that will hopefully work well and improve the class' learning experience.

My expectations for the class are to be able to learn history in a new way, and that the technology we will be using will enhance the class. I've never been a huge fan of history and I find much of the class boring and uninteresting, but the prospect of using technology to create new and exciting ways to learn sounds great.

Almost all of the history classes I've taken in the past have been very generic and dull. A lot of lectures, note-taking, essays, etc., and nothing new. I'm hoping that using the technology available to us will break up the monotony and make history a more interesting, satisfying experience.