History 2P92: The French Revolution Contested
Winter 2015
The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789 (Wikimedia)
Professor McLeod
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 905 6885550 ext. 3501
Office: GLN 241
Lecture: Tuesday 12-2
Teaching Assistant
Anna Jocsak: [email protected]
Office: GLN 240
Course Objectives and Outcomes
The course will investigate the French Revolution, its historiography and its European impact
emphasizing the Revolution’s origins, its role in the development of European political culture
and its impact on the experience of women. Topics will include the origins of the Revolution, the
failure of the Constitutional Monarchy, the Counter-revolution, the Terror and the Napoleonic
Regime. By the end of the course students should be able to:
•
outline the explanations offered by historians for the origins of the Revolution
•
outline the major historiographical shifts in how historians have interpreted the
Revolution
•
assess the effect of the Revolution on political culture, the church, women and the poor
1
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1.
Preparation for and active participation in weekly seminars is an important part of this course. All
students must read and be prepared to discuss the assigned readings every week.
2.
All students will lead one seminar.
3.
All students will write a book review of Timothy Tackett, Becoming a Revolutionary: The
Deputies of the French National Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (178990). The book review should be 10 pages in length and is due on Thursday February 5.
Hand your papers into the History Department Drop Box. Marks will be deducted at the rate
of 3% a day or weekend for late assignments and no papers will be accepted after 10 February
2015. Footnotes or endnotes must be used to provide references to pages in the book. Use your
own words to make your points and do not rely on quotes to do this.
4.
One final examination.
Calculation of Final Grade
Book Review
Seminar Leadership
Seminar Participation
Final Examination
30 %
10%
30%
30%
Plagiarism is the use of another's ideas without acknowledgment. Words taken from another must be set
off in quotation marks and the source cited. The course penalty for plagiarism is zero on the assignment.
Consult your university calendar for the further consequences of committing plagiarism at Brock.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Timothy Tackett, Becoming a Revolutionary: The Deputies of the French National Assembly and the
Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (1789-1790)
Laura Mason and Tracey Rizzo, The French Revolution: A Document Collection
Recommended text: Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
Website:
Jack Censer
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/
SEMINAR TOPICS AND READINGS
2. Week of January 12, 2015: The Estates General. Why did the King summon the Estates General?
What were the concerns of members of the Third Estate? Why? Who was Abbé Sieyès? What were the
cahiers de doléances? How can historians use these as a source? What was the Tennis Court Oath?
Explain the king’s position.
Mason and Rizzp, pp. 49-66.
2
3. Week of January 19, 2015: Becoming Revolutionaries. All students will read Becoming a
Revolutionary, pp.3-116. Why did Tackett try to study the deputies of the French National Assembly?
What questions is he asking? What methods does he use to carry out his investigation? Who were the
members of the First Estate, the Second Estate, Third Estate? Explore their thinking before the
Revolution. How radical were these men? Were they influenced by the Enlightenment? How does
Tackett determine this? Did their attitudes change? If so, how and why?
4. Week of January 26, 2015. Becoming Revolutionaries. All students will read Timothy Tackett,
Becoming a Revolutionary, 117-313. Did factions develop? If so, why? Explain the thinking of the three
estates. What happened on the night of August 4? Why did this happen? Explore the significance of
this? Who were the moderate patriots? How large of group were they? In 1790 did it look as if they
might be able to stay in control of the Revolution? What effect did the Civil Constitution have on them
and on others? How important is it to take into consideration the actual experience of the deputies in
1789-90? If this is done, what can you say about the situation of the French government in 1790?
5. Week of February 2, 2015: Violence in the Revolution. Examine the nature of crowd violence in in
the French Revolution. What evidence is used? How do historians try to get at the thinking of men and
women who rioted? What role did food shortages play and what other factors were important? What role
did women play? Explain the September massacres.
Mason and Rizzo, pp. 67-73 83-87; 174-177.
Further Reading:
Donald Sutherland, Murder in Aubagne: Lynching, Law and Justice during the French Revolution (2009)
6. Week of February 9, 2015: Political Culture in the French Revolution. Who were the sans
culottes? How did the revolutionaries attempt to regenerate the French people? Assess their attempts at
doing this. Why did they think it was possible? Why was it necessary? What role did denunciation play?
Mason and Rizzo, pp. 138-144.197-208; 248-262.
Colin Lucas, “The Theory and Practice of Denunciation in the French Revolution” The Journal of Modern
History, vol. 68, Number 4, December 1996, pp. 768-785 ( The article is available in full text on
JSTOR) http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2946719
Further Reading:
Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture and Class
Laura Mason, Singing the French Revolution
Week of February 16, 2015 - Reading Week
7. Week of February 23, 2015: The War. Why was war declared? Who wanted war and why? Who
was Madame Roland? Who were the Girondins? What was Robespierre’s view on war and why did he
think this way? Explain Brissot’s view. How did the war affect the course of the Revolution?
Mason and Rizzo, pp. 157-170.
David Bell, The First Total War, pp. 84-119.
3
8. Week of March 2, 2015: The King’s Trial
Why was the king deposed? Who wanted this? Assess the role of the Paris crowds. Why was he put on
trial? What can we learn from the speeches at his trial? What were the arguments used to defend him?
What were those used to convict him? Explain the outcome of the trial. Are there generalizations that can
be made about political trials?
Mason and Rizzo, pp. 170-173; 177-187.
Michael Walzer, “The King’s Trial and the Political Culture of the French Revolution” in The French
Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture: Volume 2, The Political Culture of the French
Revolution, ed. Colin Lucas, pp. 183-192.
Further Reading
Jordan, The King’s Trial
9. Week of March 9, 2015: The Terror. What was the Terror? What was the Law of Suspects? What
are other aspects of the Terror? Explain how the Terror could have happened. Could the Terror have been
avoided? What were the major threats that the government faced? How important is the war in
understanding the Terror? How helpful is it to study the personal lives of Robespierre and Saint-Just?
What motivated these men? How important was authenticity to them? Why? How have historians
represented them and why? Think about the sources historians use to study Robespierre and St. Just. How
did the Terror affect the subsequent course of the Revolution?
Mason and Rizzo, pp. 225-243.
Marisa Linton, Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution (Oxford,
2013) pp. 227-250.
Further Reading
David Andrews, The Terror
D. Greer, The Incidence of the Terror during the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation.
R. R. Palmer, The Twelve Who Ruled.
4
10. Week of March 16, 2015: Women and the Family in the French Revolution. Assess the ways in
which the French Revolution affected women and the family in French society. What was the political
role of women before the Revolution and during it? What was the importance of the family? How
connected were the institutions of monarchy and family? What did the philosophes think about the place
of women in society? What did the Declaration of the Rights of Man say about women? Explain the
March to Versailles. How did the revolutionary legislation affect women and the institution of the
family?
Mason and Rizzo, pp. 83-87; 109-113; 244-248.
Susan Desan, “War between Brothers and sisters: Inheritances law and gender politics in revolutionary
France” French Historical Studies, vol. 20, 1997, pp. 597-634. (The article is available in full text
on JSTOR.) http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/286913
Further Reading
Sian Reynolds, Mariage and Revolution, (2012)
Susan Desan, The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France.
Dominique Godineau, The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution
Roderick Phillips, Putting Asunder: A history of Divorce in Western Society, pp. 159-90; 256-75.
11. Week of March 23, 2015: Directory. What challenges faced the Directors? How did they meet
these challenges? How was the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1795 different from previous ones?
Why was there so much violence? How well did the judicial system work? Describe the array of political
opinions in these years. Who were the Jacobins? What did they want ? How well did they do in elections?
Why do historians regard Gracchus Babeuf as an important figure? Who were the royalists? What were
they seeking? Who supported them? Why did the Directory fall?
Mason and Rizzo, 281-319.
Further Reading:
Laura Mason, “ Never was a plot so holy: Gracchus Babeuf and the end of the French Revolution” in
Conspiracy and the French Revolution, pp. 172-188.
Howard Brown, Ending the French Revolution: Violence, Justice and Repression from the Terror to
Napoleon
Isser Woloch, Jacobin Legacy: The Democratic Movement Under the Directory
5
12. Week of March 30 , 2015: Napoleon. Explain Napoleon's rise to power. How important was the
force of his personality? It has been claimed that Romantic historians have misled us by focussing on
Napoleon as a military commander when his main achievement was the creation of a modern state where
rational and Enlightenment principles were applied. Do you agree? Examine his actions in a number of
realms including law, government, and the military. Who resisted the Napoleonic regime? Who
supported it? How did Napoleon's rise to power affect women? Why? How secure was his regime?
Mason and Rizzo, “Napoleon Closes the Revolution,” pp. 334-351.
Further Reading on Napoleon
Isser Woloch, Napoleon and his Collaborators
Alan Forrest, Napoleon’s Men;
Louis Bergeron, France under Napoleon.
Isser Woloch, "Napoleonic Conscription: State Power and Civil Society", Past and Present, no. 111, May,
1986, pp. 101-129. (The article is available in full text on Scholars Portal E-Journals.)
LECTURE SCHEDULE
.
The Origins of the French Revolution
Crisis in the French Monarchy
The Estates General The Victory of the Third Estate
National Assembly
The Fall of the Monarchy
The Republic
The Directory
French Revolution and Europe
Napoleon
Overview
6