The French Revolution and the Origins of Modern Politics

Catalog description

This course will examine the social, cultural, intellectual, economic, and especially political history of France and its Empire from the end of the Old Regime through the Napoleonic period. The origins, development, and outcome of the French Revolution, followed by the Haitian Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, will be our main focus. Particular attention will be paid to the global legacy of these late 18th and early 19th century revolutions in terms of such key modern political concepts as human rights, nationalism, social welfare, feminism, democracy, terrorism, abolitionism, capitalism, and revolution itself. Throughout the course, we will also emphasize the different and often conflicting ways in which historians have interpreted the meaning and consequences of this critical moment of upheaval.