FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON
Explores the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon. Why did Revolution break out in one of the most powerful and traditional monarchies of Europe? What were the roots of discontent and the sources of revolutionary ideas? Probes the exciting twists and turns of revolutionary politics and the attempt to spread "liberty equality" into ordinary life, even abolishing slavery in response to massive slave revolt in the French colonies. Asks how the French interacted with a transnational revolutionary movement across Europe, the US, and the Atlantic world. Though focused on a specific revolutionary era, we will also reflect on timeless questions: Why is it so difficult to create democracy? Is violence ever justified to overcome oppression and injustice? Finally, why did this experiment in radical democracy also unleash the Terror and launch Napoleon Bonaparte, the politician and general who built an astonishing European Empire? And how did he pull it off for as long as he did?
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: Sophomore standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities or Social Science Level - Intermediate L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Spring 2024 Learning Outcomes: 1. Explain the significance of the French Revolution, including its Napoleonic aftermath, as a political, social, and cultural event. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Describe major actors and events in the Revolution, from the 1780s to 1815, and recognize both the structural and contingent forces that shaped its course. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Assess the historical relationship between the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, recognizing key points of connection in the unfolding of these two events. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Analyze historical evidence in the form of primary source documents from the French Revolutionary moment and the Napoleonic era. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Analyze critically scholarly sources about the French Revolution and Napoleon in their domestic, imperial, and global dimensions, recognizing authors' arguments and evaluating the type and quality of evidence that they employ. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Construct your own written historical arguments about the revolutionary era by drawing critically upon multiple sources. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 7. Interpret and evaluate scholarly debates about the French Revolution, especially contestation over the reasons that it began, the reasons that it subsequently radicalized, and the racial and gendered dimensions of the revolutionary project. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Explain the significance of the French Revolution, including its Napoleonic aftermath, as a political, social, and cultural event. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 2. Describe major actors and events in the Revolution, from the 1780s to 1815, and recognize both the structural and contingent forces that shaped its course. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 3. Assess the historical relationship between the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, recognizing key points of connection in the unfolding of these two events. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 4. Analyze historical evidence in the form of primary source documents from the French Revolutionary moment and the Napoleonic era. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 5. Analyze critically scholarly sources about the French Revolution and Napoleon in their domestic, imperial, and global dimensions, recognizing authors' arguments and evaluating the type and quality of evidence that they employ. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 6. Construct your own written historical arguments about the revolutionary era by drawing critically upon multiple sources. Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad 7. Interpret and evaluate scholarly debates about the French Revolution, especially contestation over the reasons that it began, the reasons that it subsequently radicalized, and the racial and gendered dimensions of the revolutionary project. Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027