21H.346
France, 1660-1815: Enlightenment, Revolution, Napoleon
Spring 2011
This course covers French politics, culture, and society from Louis XIV to Napoleon Bonaparte. Attention is given to the growth of the central state, the beginnings of a modern consumer society, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, including its origins, and the rise and fall of Napoleon.
Readings
- [Beik] = Beik, William, ed. Louis XIV and Absolutism: A Brief Study with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture) . Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. ISBN: 9780312227432.
- [Blaufarb] = Blaufarb, Rafe. Napoleon: A Symbol for an Age: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) . Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. ISBN: 9780312431105.
- Tocqueville, Alexis de. The Old Regime and the French Revolution . Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1979. ISBN: 9780844619736. (Seminal work in the history of this period; first published in 1856, and still highly relevant.)
- Jones, Colin. The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (New Penguin History of France) . Penguin, 2003. ISBN: 9780140130935. (The best recent one volume study of this period in English.)
- Ravel, Jeffrey. “France.” In Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment . Edited by Alan Charles Kors. 4 vols. Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 60-65. ISBN: 9780195104332.
- Félix, Joël. “The Economy.” In Old Regime France: 1648-1788 (Short Oxford History of Europe) . Edited by William Doyle. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1-41. ISBN: 9780198731290.
- Beik, Paul Harold, ed. “Lists of Grievances.” In The French Revolution . Macmillan, 1971, pp. 45-63. ISBN: 9780802720368.
- Campbell, Peter Robert, ed. “Peasants and Their Grievances.” In The Origins of the French Revolution (Problems in Focus) . Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 239-67. ISBN: 9780333949719.
- David A. Bell. “Culture and Religion.” In Old Regime France: 1648-1788 . Edited by William Doyle. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 78-104. ISBN: 9780198731290.
- Diderot, Denis. The Encyclopédie of Diderot and D’Alembert: Selected Articles . Edited by John Lough. Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780521113465.
- Darnton, Robert. “Philosophers Trim the Tree of Knowledge: The Epistemological Strategy of the Encyclopédie.” In The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History . Basic Books, 1984, pp. 191-213. ISBN: 9780465027002.
- Diderot, Denis and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, eds. Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers . André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durand, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751.
- Voltaire, and François-Marie Arouet. Mahomet . Translated by William F. Fleming. Wilder Publications, 2011. ISBN: 9781617202582.
- Jacob, Margaret C., ed. “The Treatise of the Three Impostors.” In The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture) . Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000, pp. 94-114. ISBN: 9780312179977.
- Voltaire. Dictionnaire philosophique . French & European Publications, 1964. ISBN: 9780686557456.
- Darnton, Robert. “Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-Séverin.” In The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History . Basic Books, 2009, pp. 75-104. ISBN: 9780465027002.
- Gerould, Daniel Charles. “The Shit Merchant.” In Gallant and Libertine: Divertissements and Parades from 18th Century France . PAJ Publications, 1986, pp. 99-106. ISBN: 9780933826496.
- Mason, Laura, and Tracey Rizzo. “Legislating an Enlightened Regime.” In The French Revolution: A Document Collection . Edited by Laura Mason. Houghton Mifflin, 1999, pp. 98-117.
- Rizzo, Tracey, and Laura Mason, eds. The French Revolution: A Document Collection . Edited by Laura Mason. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
- Censer, Jack R., and Lynn Avery Hunt. Liberity, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution . Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780271020884.
- Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. “From Slavery to Emancipation.” In Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture) . Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006, pp. 111-32. ISBN: 9780312415013.
- Hunt, Lynn Avery, ed. “Debates on Women’s Rights.” In The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History and Culture) . Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996, pp. 119-39. ISBN: 9780312108021.
- Kadish, Doris Y., and Francoise Massardier-Kenney, eds. “Black Slavery, or The Happy Shipwreck.” In Translating Slavery, Volume I: Gender and Race in French Abolitionist Writing, 1780-1830 (Translation Studies) . Kent State University Press, 2009, pp. 65-129. ISBN: 9781606350089.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.