What events from history spring to mind when we think of the origins of contemporary values such as freedom, liberty and democracy? The French Revolution is one of the most important events in world history, marking as it did the downfall of monarchical rule and the fierce debates that followed on what freedom, liberty, and the rights of man actually meant in practice, and consequently how France ought to be governed. This course will examine the main social, economic, and political factors that led to the eruption of revolution in France in 1789 and the myriad of tumultuous events that followed in its aftermath, ending with Napoleon’s seizure of power in 1799.

Knowledge and Understanding:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will be able:

• to demonstrate a broad knowledge of the social, economic and political history of this period;
• to demonstrate an understanding of a range of approaches used within the historical discourse of this period and topic;
• to demonstrate an ability to gather, assimilate and interpret historical knowledge of this period and topic.

Intellectual Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will be able:

• to appraise and assess sources;
• to reach conclusions about the issues raised in the course, and base these conclusions on sound reasoning.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will be able:

• to use (and derive value from) a number of sources;
• to develop their own views and argue consistent positions about the issues raised in the course;
• to search for sources of information online and in the library.

This course is taught in 10, two-hour sessions, delivered on a weekly basis.

• Lectures: these introduce the basic information to the students, and will form the bulk of provision. Hence there will be basic seminar-style sessions with tutor leading with talk and PowerPoint presentations during the first part of the session as basis for group discussion and questions and answers in the second part. Students will be invited to read up on relevant topics for homework including specific passages.
• Discussion and group work: where appropriate, students will work in small groups to apply what they have heard in the lectures to a given case study. Students are asked to reflect critically on set questions and to contribute their own ideas.

Academic Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will have:

• found relevant resources in the library and online;
• assessed the reliability of different sources of information;
• demonstrated a critical approach to academic texts.

Transferable/employability Skills:

By the end of the period of learning, the typical student will have shown that he/she can:

• work effectively as part of a group;
• present views and arguments clearly;
• communicate clearly and accurately in written form;
• argue a point with supporting evidence.

Course learning journal OR oral presentation, 50%, At least 4 x 200 words (journal); 10-minute oral presentation (the student’s notes may be submitted as evidence of the presentation’s content).  Weekly/fortnightly; Week 7

Essay, 50%, 750 words. Shortly after end of course

OR

Essay, 100% 1500 words.  Shortly after end of course

1. The social order in eighteenth-century France
2. The influence of the Enlightenment and the public sphere
3. The financial crisis and the breakdown of the Ancien Régime, 1786-89
4. The King, the Estates-General and the National Assembly, 1789
5. The Tennis Court Oath, the Storming of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789
6. The King and the threat of foreign invasion, 1791-2
7. Radicalization, the execution of Louis XVI and the republican constitution, 1793
8. Robespierre and the Great Terror, 1794
9. The War of the First Coalition, 1792-97
10. The rise of Napoleon and the Coup of Brummaire, 1799

Essential texts

Blanning, T. C. W., The French Revolution: Class War or Culture Clash? (London, 1998).

Doyle, W., Origins of the French Revolution, 3rd edn. (Oxford, 1999).

Furet, F., Interpreting the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1982).

Ledfebvre, G. The Coming of the French Revolution (Princeton, 1947).

Sutherland, D. M. G., France 1789-1815: Revolution and Counter-Revolution (London, 1986).

Recommended texts

Aftalion, F., The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation (Cambridge, 1994).

Arasse, D., The Guillotine and the Terror (London, 1989).

Aston, N., Religion and Revolution in France 1780-1804 (London, 2000).

Best, G. (ed.), The Permanent Revolution: The French Revolution and its Legacy, 1789-1989 (London, 1988).

Cobban, A., The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1999).

Doyle, W., The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford, 1989).

Forrest, A., The French Revolution and the Poor (Oxford, 1981).

Furet, F., Revolutionary France 1770-1870 (Oxford, 1992).

Gough, H., The Newspaper Press in the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1988).

Gough, H., The Terror in the French Revolution (London, 1998).

Jones, C., The Longman Companion to the French Revolution (London, 1988).

Jones, P., The Peasantry and the French Revolution (London, 1998).

Jordan, D. P., The King’s Trial. Louis XVI versus the Revolution (Berkeley, 1979).

Lucas, C. (ed.), Rewriting the French Revolution, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1991).

Lyons, M., Napoleon Bonaparte and Legacy of the French Revolution (London, 1994).

Melzer, S. E., and Rabine L. E. (eds.), Rebel Daughters: Women and the French Revolution (New York, 1992).

Roberts, J. M., The French Revolution, 2ed edn. (Oxford, 1999).

Rudé, G., The Crowd in the French Revolution (Oxford, 1965).

Schama, Simon, A Chronicle of the French Revolution (London, 1989).

Tocqueville, A. de, The Old Regime and the Revolution (London, 1988).

Tackett, T, Becoming a Revolutionary. The Deputies of the French National

Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (1789-1790) (Princeton, 1996).

Williams, G. A., Artisans and sans-culottes: Popular Movements in France and Britain during the French Revolution, 2nd edn. (London, 1988).