Explores the dramatic changes that characterized Western Europe as it rebounded in the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries from the ravages of the Black Death of 1348. Examines the social, political, and artistic developments in late medieval and Renaissance Italy before "crossing the Alps" to trace the expansion of Renaissance culture in Northern Europe. Topics covered in the course include the humanist movement, new patterns of social organization, the revival of classical antiquity in the arts, architecture, religion and political theory, the effects on European society of the encounter with the "New World," shifting roles for men and women in early modern European societies, and religious war and conflict.