HISTORY 353/ UNIQUE 39370 (Fall, 2010)
UTC 3.112
Judy Coffin (Professor Coffin)
Office Hours Thursdays 2-5 and by appointment in Garrison Hall 1.22
jcoffin@mail.utexas.edu Read this note.[1]
Mary Katherine Matalon (Mary Katherine)
Office hours Tuesdays 11:30am-1:30pm in the PCL cafe
Thursdays 4-5 pm in BUR 302.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON: 1789-1815
In the 1950s, the Chinese Premier Zhou En-Lai was asked what he thought about the French revolution of 1789. He answered that was “too soon to tell.” Historians, social scientists, and politicians have studied and debated this extraordinary event for two centuries, and they still not answered the many questions it poses. Why does a regime collapse? How is a new state built? Are revolutions necessarily protracted and violent? Writers and artists, too, have been captivated by the human drama of this tumultuous decade and a half. How did ordinary people survive? How were extraordinary careers made – and lost?
In this course we’ll use the French revolution to think about all these questions concretely. We have three aims. The first is to help you master the major events of the revolution itself. The second is to introduce issues of interpretation and historical methods, for the French revolution has long been a forcing ground for new theories of history and new approaches to the past. The required readings represent some of those approaches. Third, we hope you will learn how the revolution has become one of the defining points of modern history, and how it has shaped the world we inhabit today.
The following books are REQUIRED reading:
- William Doyle, The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
- David Andress, The Terror: The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (any edition)
- David Bell, The First Total War
- Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. You do not have to buy this book. The two required chapters are on e-reserve. I recommend a third chapter. If you prefer having a book to reading one on line, or if you just like social and cultural history, by all means buy it.
Additional required reading will be on Blackboard, and on the excellent George Mason University website: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity:” (LEF) http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution. Required documents are noted on the syllabus. You may be able to access them directly, by clicking on the URL. You will probably have to search for the document by name. This site has lots of additional material that you will find useful: essays, time lines, and glossaries.
If you have any questions about assignments or the material, please ask.
Note the timelines in Doyle and Andress.
Optional reading:
For the Napoleon followers among you, I have ordered Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life (analytic and appreciative) and Schom, Napoleon Bonaparte (narrative and critical). If you would like more detail on the revolution, I recommend Simon Schama’s Citizens. I have ordered a few copies of Tolstoy’s War and Peace (the Peaver and Volokhonsky translation) in case a few of you would like to organize a W&P reading group.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
**->This is an upper division course and a challenging one. You do have to learn names and dates; you need them to “reach” the broader and more interesting issues, such as the origins of the terror, the problems of forging a state and nation, or what the revolutionaries meant by “democracy.”
** àLearning the basic material will be more difficult if you skip lectures. So if you miss a class, get the notes from a fellow student, and do the reading with those notes in mind. I reserve the right to take attendance on any given day. Missing more than 2 classes on a T-TH schedule may well jeopardize your performance in the class.
We expect you to keep up with the reading, which is marked on the syllabus, and to be prepared to discuss it. We will have small and large group discussions, and we expect respectful, informed, and intelligent participation in those discussions. We will have informal writing assignments in class. Those cannot be made up if you miss class.
I adjust the schedule over the course of the semester, partly in response to student requests. I assume you are present, paying attention to announcements, consulting with fellow students, and checking **your Blackboard email.** (See the legal notice on this.) àKeep track of changes in assignments, lectures, and discussions.
Your grade in the course will be based on:
- 3 4-page take home papers (30% each)
- various in-class assignments and quizzes. (10%)
** Historians care about writing. It is impossible to separate form from content, and both count in your grade. Check your grammar, sentence structure, and word usage. Go to the writing center. Have someone read and comment on your paper. Give yourself time to revise.
We evaluate the paper's argument, clarity, and thoroughness, how well you have synthesized the material in lectures, and how well you have understood the reading.
All papers and take-home exams must be typed, double spaced, with regular fonts and margins and your name on each page. They must be handed in, not emailed.
Graduate students *Graduate students taking the course (even for undergraduate credit) will have additional readings and different requirements. Please see me.
SOME POLICY MATTERS:
1) NO LAPTOPS, cell phones, or texting in the classroom.
2) PLEASE DO NOT disrupt class by talking, wandering in late, or leaving early. If for some reason you have to leave class early, do so quietly and let me know beforehand.
3) All the assignments are required, even if you are taking the course pass-fail.
4) You cannot Q drop the course after the deadline if you are failing it -- if, for instance, you have missed quizzes or forgotten to hand in papers. Please bear this in mind.
5) It is easy to buy papers on the Web and to copy from websites. You will get a 0 for the assignment, from which it is hard to recover.
6) All federal, state, and university laws apply. These are spelled out at the end of the syllabus.
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES, READINGS, AND ASSIGNMENTS
PART I: THE OLD REGIME
1. Introduction (August 26)
Doyle, Very short history, ch. 1 (I recommend reading the whole book quickly – you can come back to sections as we get to that material.)
Bell, First Total War, intro
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap2a.html “The Monarchy Embattled”
What were the most fundamental characteristics of the Ancien Regime? What powers and problems did Louis XVI inherit?
2. Absolutism and its critics (Aug 31 & Sept 2)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, book I (entire); book II (1-4 and 8-11). Consult handout on BLACKBOARD. Be prepared to discuss Rousseau next week.
3. Corruption and Utopia: The Social Contract (Sept 7 & 9
Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book III (4-6, 9-10, 16-18); Book IV (1 and 8)
Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre ch. 6, “Readers Respond to Rousseau” and material on The New Heloise
4. The Social Order (Sept 14 & 16)
Doyle, Very Short History, ch. 2
Bell, First Total War, ch 1.
Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, chapter 1, “Peasants Tell Tales”. Skim the beginning of this essay, or start on page 23. See reading guide on Blackboard.
Darnton, Cat Massacre, Ch. 2, “Massacre of Cats”
5. 1787-1789: Crisis (Sept 21& 23)
Andress, The Terror, ch 1 has a good review of this period.
Sieyès, "What Is the Third Estate?" (1789)
Thursday Sept 23: 1st take-home paper due
PART II: REGIME CHANGE
6. The End of Feudalism and the “Rights of Man” (Sept 28 & 30)
See Andress, The Terror, ch 1 for this period
Attack on Seigneurial Dues
Cahiers from Rural Districts: Attack on Seigneurial Dues
7. The King and the Popular movement (October 5 & 7)
Read Andress, The Terror, ch. 2 on the clubs and popular politics
Read the following carefully and be prepared to discuss them. Be prepared for group assignments.
Populace Awake (1790)
Champ de Mars: Petitions of the Cordelier and Jacobin Clubs
The Massacre of the Champ de Mars [Parade ground]
Parisian Petitions to Dethrone the King (3 August 1792)
Proceedings of the Quinze–Vingts Section
8. War, radicalization, and republic (October 12 & 14)
Andress, The Terror, ch. 3
Bell, First Total War, chs. 3 (keep going to 4 and 5)
LEF The Marseillaise (War Song for the Army of the Rhine) http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/625/
Why did the revolution radicalize? Compare Bell’s analysis with Andress’s,
Why did the revolutionaries go to war? What problems was war meant to solve?
Be prepared for group assignments, writing exercises, quizzes.
9. The Second French Revolution (Oct. 19 & 21)
Bell, First Total War, ch. 4 (and 5)
Andress, The Terror, ch. 4 (on September massacres). Remember Darnton’s essay on violence, and bring it into your thinking here.
Andress, ch. 5 (on the trial of the King)
Be prepared for group assignments, writing exercises, quizzes.
10. Revolution and Counter Revolution (Oct. 26 & 28)
Andress, The Terror, chs 6-10. (We will figure out how to make this assignment manageable)
11. The Terror (Nov. 2 & 4)
Andress, The Terror, 11 to end
Optional: Chapter 5: Women and the Revolution (Hunt web site)
PART III NAPOLEON’S EMPIRE AND THE REVOLUTION ON THE WORLD STAGE
12. From Robespierre to Bonaparte (Nov. 9 & 11)
Bell, The First Total War, ch 6
LEF Chapter 9: The Napoleonic Experience.
13. Napoleon's Empire (Nov. 16 & 18)
Bell, First Total War, chs. 7-8
LEF “Slavery & the Haitian Rev”. http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap8a.html
THURS NOV. 18 SECOND TAKE HOME PAPER DUE
14. War and Peace (Nov. 23) THANKSGIVING
Bell, First Total War, chs. 7-8 and epilogue
Thomas Jefferson on the French Revolution
A Positive American View (Franklin)
15. The Revolution and its Legacies (Nov. 30 & Dec. 2)
Doyle, Very Short History, chs. 4-5-6
Chapter 10: Legacies of the Revolution
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Final take home due on date of final exam (the University Schedule is posted by the middle of the semester at http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/schedules/049/finals/
THE LEGAL MATTERS
Academic Integrity
University of Texas Honor Code
The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community. Each student in this course is expected to abide by the University of Texas Honor Code. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student's own work.
You are encouraged to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in lecture and the sections with other students. Cooperating should never involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in the form of an e mail, an e mail attachment file, a diskette, or a hard copy.
Should copying occur, both the student who copied work from another student and the student who gave material to be copied will both automatically receive a zero for the assignment. Penalty for violation of this Code can also be extended to include failure of the course and University disciplinary action.
Use of E-mail for Official Correspondence to Students
All students should become familiar with the University's official e-mail student notification policy. It is the student's responsibility to keep the University informed as to changes in his or her e-mail address. Students are expected to check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with University-related communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail be checked daily, but at a minimum, twice per week. The complete text of this policy and instructions for updating your e-mail address are available at http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.html.
Documented Disability Statement
Any student with a documented disability who requires academic accommodations should contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at (512) 471-6259 (voice) or 1-866-329-3986 (video phone). Faculty are not required to provide accommodations without an official accommodation letter from SSD.
- Please notify me as early in the semester as possible if disability-related accommodations for assignments are required.
Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL)
If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD). Call 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal.
Q drop Policy
The State of Texas has enacted a law that limits the number of course drops for academic reasons to six (6). As stated in Senate Bill 1231:
“Beginning with the fall 2007 academic term, an institution of higher education may not permit an undergraduate student a total of more than six dropped courses, including any course a transfer student has dropped at another institution of higher education, unless the student shows good cause for dropping more than that number.”
[1] You are overwhelmed by email. So are we. You will get better quality feedback and substantive discussion by coming to office hours. Please don’t email us with procedural and logistical questions unless you have asked your fellow students and consulted Blackboard. In this course and in life, think before you send an email.
This course contains a Global Cultures flag.