It's a philosophy department, and they (like many of the social sciences) have pretty precise ideas what "modern" means. The 1950s is probably the latest decade

It's a philosophy department, and they (like many of the social sciences) have pretty precise ideas what "modern" means. The 1950s is probably the latest decade that they could put into the "modern" bucket. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_history which calls 1945-and-later "contemporary history".