Week 15 - The French Revolution

Monday through Friday, November 30 - December 4 

*Event: US Last TAP Day Out, 12/3.

**Leading questions: What were the turning points in the French Revolution or the Napoleonic Wars that followed. What are the legacies of the French Revolution in France, Europe and elsewhere in the world? In what ways did things change or progress? In what ways did things remain the same? What made this revolution so inspiring and at the same time so terrifying to the world?

***Final drafts of historiography research and historiography DUE by Tuesday, 12/8/2015. 

Day 1: The Ancien Regime: The Twilight of the Monarchies?

- In-class: Review remaining projects, final exams, the second self reflection, and remaining extra credit opportunities. Independent research presentations continue all week.

- In-class: Chronicle current events.

- In-class: Read and discuss primary sources on the ancien regime. 

- Homework for Day 2: Read "Overturning the Political and Social Order," from The West in the World, Vol II., eds. Sherman and Salisbury, pp. 487-497 (Up until the section, "Radical Republicans Struggle for Power"). Take notes on key terms and persons, and prepare notes on the accompanying question (see below).

- Key terms: The ancien regime, Reform efforts (of Jacques Turgot), the Estates General, The Tennis Court Oath, cahiers, the Bastille, The National Assembly, The Great Fear, Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, Declaration of the Rights of Women, March to Versailles, Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Sans-culottes, The Jacobin Club, and the National Convention.

- Key persons: Arthur Young, Louis XVI, Jacques Turgot, Abbe Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, Olympe de Gouges, and Georges-Jacques Danton.

- Key question: What were the underlying causes of the revolution (cites primary sources where possible).

Day 2/3: Independent Research. 
- In-class: Meet in the library; bring materials for final drafting and discussion with the instructor.

- Homework for Day 3: Read from "Radical Republicans Struggling for Power," in The West in the World, Vol II., eds. Sherman and Salisbury, pp. 497-505 (Up until the section, "Napoleon Bonaparte"). Take notes on key terms and persons, and prepare notes on the accompanying TWO questions (see below).

- Key terms: Girondins and Jacobins,, the terror, committee of public safety, levee en masse, the Haitian Revolution, the Thermidorian reaction, the "White" terror, and the Directory.

- Key persons:  Maximilien Robespierre, Manon Roland, Toussaint L'Ouverture, and Jean-Paul Marat.

- Key questions: How did the revolution become more radical? What were the effects of the revolution?

Day 2/3: The Causes of the French Revolution.

- In-class: Review homework, read the following two secondary sources, and discuss the causes of the French Revolution. 

- In-class, secondary Source #1: Georges Lefebvre, "The Coming of the French Revolution," pp. 125-126.  
- In-class, Secondary Source #2: Donald M. G. Sutherland, "The Revolution of the Notables," p. 126.

- Homework for Day 4: Read the handout from class on secondary sources about the French Revolution, prepare notes on the arguments and evidence of those secondary sources, and try to synthesize those arguments on the effects of the French Revolution. 
- Secondary Source #3: Ruth Graham, "Loaves and Liberty: Women in the French Revolution," pp. 127-128.
- Secondary Source #4: William Doyle, "An Evaluation of the French Revolution," pp. 128-129.

Day 4: The Ambivalent Effects of Revolution and the Prospects for “Modernity”.

- In-class: Discuss the arguments and evidence from the secondary sources, and introduce final exam review guide.
- Homework over the weekend: Work on revisions to the final draft of the historiography papers, which are DUE at the end of the school day in which each class has its long period, AND take a look over the final exam review guide in preparation for review next week.

Week 14 - The Old Regime, 1715-1789

Monday and Tuesday, November 23-24, 2015

*Events and Holidays: Grandparents Day (Tu., 11/24 on a Friday special schedule!), and Thanksgiving Break, Wed, 11/25 - Fri, 27.

**Leading Questions: What were the attitudes and lifestyle of 18th-century French aristocracy like? What was life like for other groups in pre-Revolutionary France? How did their assumptions differ from our own? How might they be similar? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Old Regime. What were some of the possible consequences of aristocratic attitudes toward, peasants, slaves and women? What options seem available to women in mid-18th French politics and society? In what ways might the interests of men and women clash? In what ways did competing groups and historical conditions put pressure on aristocrats? What were the assets and liabilities of 18th-century aristocrats in the face of pressures to diminish their position and influence? Was revolution avoidable?

***Historiography drafts DUE by the end of the class day, Tuesday, 11/24.

Day 1: Introduction to the Old Regime.

- In-class: Discuss the Ancien Regime in France.

- Homework for Day 2: Choose one or more of the following options from the textbook, The West in the World, read, take notes on the following key terms and persons, and prepare for discussion on Grandparents' Day, Day 2.

- Option#1: Statebuilding in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.

Introduction, p. 451 + pp. 452-460.

- Key terms: The Peace of Utrecht, the Partition of Poland, Wahhabism, the Diplomatic Revolution

- Key persons: Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa.

- Option#2: Changes in Country and City Life, Manufacturing, Health and Middle Class Life.

Introduction, p. 451 + pp. 471-476.

- Key terms: The Agricultural Revolution, enclosures, the cottage industry.

- Option#3: The Culture of the Elite: The Modern Novel, Art, Architecture, Music, the Grand Tour, and Culture for the Lower Classes.

Introduction, p. 451 + pp. 476-481.

- Key authors: Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Burney, and Goethe.

- Key terms: Neo-Classical, Rococo, and Baroque music.

- Key artists: Watteau, Greuze, and Hogarth.

- Key musicians: Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Mozart.

Day 2: Life in the Ancien Regime.

In-class: Discussions of readings on the Old Regime of Europe.

Week 13: The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, 1600-1800

Monday through Friday, November 16-20, 2015.

*Leading questions: How did the science of the 17th century constitute a break from the past? What challenges did 17th-century scientists face, and how did they handle these problems? How does one explain the rise of the Scientific Revolution in the 17th rather than the 16th or 18th century? What are the core values and attitudes of the European Enlightenment? How do these ideas relate to 18th-century societies and institutions? How did the policies of 18th-century rulers reflect the Enlightenment? What hindrances did monarchs face who desired more enlightened rule? What are the legacies of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution in the modern world? What ideas and attitudes no longer seem valid?

Day 1, Monday: The Scientific Revolution.

- In-class: Review Absolutism, the English Civil War and Constitutionalism.

- In-class: Begin to read and discuss primary source handouts on the Scientific Revolution, including excerpts from Renee Descartes, "The Discourse on Method," and Galileo Galilei.

- In-class: Report on and chronicle current events; pay particulat attention to ISIS/Syria and the terrorist attack on Paris on Friday, 11/13/2015.

- Homework for Day 2/3: Read, "A New World of Reason and Reform," from The West in the World, Vol II., eds. Sherman and Salisbury, pp. 425-436 (up to the section, "Laying the Foundations for the Enlightenment"), and prepare notes on the following question, key terms and persons for a graded discussion in class.

- Key terms: The Ptolemaic (or geocentric) model of the universe, the Copernican Revolution (and heliocentric model of the universe), the Roman inquisition, Neoplatonism, Hermetic doctrine, alchemy, experimental method (methodology of science/empirical method), inductive reasoning (and empirical investigation), deductive reasoning (and mathematical reasoning), Cartesian dualism.

- Key persons: Blaise Pascal, Galileo Galilei, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Plato, Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Paracelsus, Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon, and Rene Descartes.

- Key questions:  
#1: What explains why some people in the "West" began to challenge the standard assumptions of their civilization, like how things worked in nature, and what were the consequences of the scientific and rational challenges to accepted authorities on truth? 
#2: Why did the scientific revolution emerge in Europe when it did, at a time when Europe was caught up in almost a century of religious wars and other conflicts? Use three examples to illustrate and support your answer.

Day 2/3: Independent research

- In-library: Work on historiography research; conference time with instructor, librarians, and tutors.

Day 2/3: The Scientific Revolution, Part 2.

- In-class: Discuss the homework reading and questions about the reasons behind the scientific revolution (from Day2/3).

- Homework for Day 4: Read about the Enlightenment in The West in the World, Vol II., eds. Sherman and Salisbury, pp. 436-446, and prepare notes on the following question, key terms and persons for a graded discussion in class.

- Key question: How did the scientific revolution lay the foundation for the Enlightenment?

- Key terms: Enlightenment, salon, orrery, skepticism, the philosophes, the Encyclopedia, Deism, separation of powers, checks and balances, enlightened absolutism (enlightened monarchs), physiocrats, laissez-faire, criminology/penology, and the "woman question".

- Key persons: Pierre Bayle, David Hume, Voltaire, Emilie du Chatelet, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Cesare Beccaria, Mary Wollstonecraft, Madame Geoffrin, and Condorcet.  

Day 4: The Enlightenment.

- In-class: Read the primary source handout by Immanuel Kant, "What is the Enlightenment?" and discuss the influence of the scientific revolution on the Enlightenment.

- Homework: Work on independent research paper drafts.

Week 12: The English Civil War and Constitutionalism.

Monday through Friday, November 9-13.

*Online Quiz 2.5 Absolutism and Constitutionalism (Weeks 11 &12); opens on Friday, 11/13 at 3:30 and closes on Wednesday evening at midnight, 11/18.

Day 1: Absolutism in Eastern Europe.

- In-class: Report and chronicle current events; focus on Syria and ISIS.

- In-class: Discuss the homework reading, "The Struggle for Sovereignty in Eastern Europe," from The West in the World, Vol II., eds. Sherman and Salisbury, pp.403-409 (up until the section, "The Triumph of Constitutionalism").

- In-class group work: Develop PERSIA notes on France, Central Europe, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.

- In-class Question#1: How did the struggles in everyday life and issues of sovereignty compare between Western and Eastern Europe, based on the examples of Brandenburg-Prussia, Austria, Russia and Poland?

- Key Terms: sovereignty, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the (French) Wars of Aggression, the Peace of Utrecht, estates, serfs, Brandenburg-Prussia, the Hohenzollerns, Austria, the Hapsburgs, the Ottomans, the Tsars, and the Romanovs.

- Key Persons: The Great Elector Frederick William, Leopold I, Jan Sobieski, Ivan IV (the "Terrible"), and Peter I (the "Great").

- Homework for Day 2/3: Read "The Triumph of Constitutionalism in England," from The West in the World, Vol II., eds. Sherman and Salisbury, pp. 409-419 (up until the section, "The Netherlands Maintains a Republic," and prepare notes on the following key terms, persons, and questions for discussion in class:

1. What were the causes of the English Civil War?

2. What were the effects?

3. Why did constitutionalism emerge in England and not at the same time on the continent of Europe?

- Key terms: Divine rule, Lèse-majesté, constitutionalism, sumptuary laws, "gunpowder plot", Puritans, Cavaliers, Roundheads, Levellers, the Rump Parliament, two theories of government, the social contract, natural law, "military revolution," the Commonwealth, the Glorious Revolution, the English Bill of Rights, and the Hanover Dynasty.

- Key Persons:  James I (the Stuart Dynasty), Charles I, Jane Whorwood, Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Samuel Pepys.

Day 2/3 (Long periods): Independent Research.

- In-library: Use time to continue research and writing, and consult with instructors, librarians and tutors.

Day 3: Social Contracts, Constitutionalism and the Glorious Revolution.

- In-class: Read, take SOAPSTONE notes, and discuss the following primary sources:

- Primary source#1: James I, "The Powers of the Monarch in England".

- Primary source#2: The House of Commons, "The Powers of Parliament in England".

- Primary source#3: Thomas Hobbes, "Leviathan: Political Order and Political Theory".

- Primary source#4: John Locke, "Second Treatise of Civil Government: Legislative Power".

- In-class: Discuss the homework questions:

1. What were the causes and effects of the English Civil War?

2. Why did constitutionalism emerge in England and not at the same time on the continent of Europe?

- Homework for Day 4: Read the handout packet on the following secondary sources on the English Civil War, and identify the arguments and evidence of the secondary sources.

- Secondary source#1: Conrad Russell, "The Causes of the English Civil War".

- Secondary source#2: G. Durand, "Absolutism: Myth and Reality".

- Secondary source#3: George Macaulay Trevelyan, "The English Revolution, 1688-1689".

Day 4: The Historiography on the English Civil War and Constitutionalism.

- In-class:  Discuss the secondary sources and review the materials on the English Civil War and the emergence of constitutionalism.

- Homework: Continue to work on independent research, outlining and drafting of independent research papers.