Early Modern France

Catalog description

This course covers the political, social, and cultural development of France from the 16th-century Wars of Religion to the ascension of Napoleon I in 1804, with an emphasis on the effects of revolutionary change on daily life (including the role of women, popular piety, the church and religious dissent, and labor relations), and on the impact of new political languages beyond the borders of France itself. Source readings, from the salon writings of the Bourbon court to the raucous songs of the streets of Paris, aid in considering if a French identity was formed during the period.