Description: The key events you read about in your morning twitter feed or on your favorite news sites are usually not unique in world affairs. They have a background, a context, that makes them more understandable and often more interesting. History is about everything that happened before you started reading this course description. And thinking historically means trying to make sense of the new in the context of what human beings have done before. In this lecture series, NYU's historians take you on a behind the scenes tour of current events you thought you knew, with the goal of making you a better observer and analyst of news about the world around you.