This course will focus on the history of France, from the late-eighteenth century until the early nineteenth century. Though a relatively short time-span, the events of this era were of crucial importance in determining the future trajectories not only of France, but of all of Europe and, to a lesser though still significant extent, the entire world. Though the course will span the period from the “Old Regime” (France before 1789) until 1815, the bulk of the course will focus on the period from 1789 through 1794.

Readings

The following are the readings for the semester. They will be available online, either directly (as a .pdf) or as a link (often via JSTOR.org)

*Note that some more readings will be added and that every week – or almost every week – will have at least some readings, though the reading load as a whole will be reasonable.

Main textbook:

McPhee, Peter. Liberty or Death : the French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. 

Dwyer, Philip G. Citizen Emperor : Napoleon in Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. 

Schedule each week

(* “McPhee, Ch 1” means the first chapter of this book: McPhee, Peter. Liberty or Death : the French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. )

• Week 1              

Topic:

France and its empire in the 1780s

Primary material: –

Reading: –

Group Work: –

• Week 2              

Topic:

The Enlightenment

Primary material:

https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/condorcet-outlines-of-an-historical-view-of-the-progress-of-the-human-mind – intro, epoch 9, epoch 10 if time

https://revolution.chnm.org/d/278

Reading:

McPhee Ch 2.

Robert Darnton, Readers Respond to Rousseau, from The Great Cat Massacre.

Group Work:

• Week 3             

Topic:

The Year 1789

Primary material:

KMB: 184-99; 228-237; LMTR:51-54

Reading:

McPhee Ch 4.

Suzanne Desan, “Gender, Radicalization, and the October Days: Occupying the National Assembly,” French Historical Studies 43, no. 3 (August 2020): 360–61.

Group Work:

• Week 4             

Topic:

Rights and Debates

Primary material:

LMTR:98-109

Reading:

McPhee Ch 5.

Wallerstein, Immanuel. “Citizens All? Citizens Some! The Making of the Citizen.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 45, no. 4 (2003): 650–79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3879492.

Group Work:

• Week 5             

Topic:

From the Civil Constitution of the Clergy to the Flight to Varennes

Primary material:

KMB: 240-242, 270-278

Reading:

McPhee Ch 7.

Dale Lothrop Clifford, “The National Guard and the Parisian Community, 1789-1790,” French Historical Studies 16, no. 4 (Autumn 1990).

Group Work:

• Week 6           

Topic:

1792: war and revolution

Primary material:

KMB: 287-290; 295-311

Reading:

McPhee Ch 8-9.

Rhys Jones, “Time Warps During the French Revolution,” Past & Present 254, no. 1 (February 2022): 109.

Group Work:

• Week 7            

Topic:

The Vendee

Primary material:

KMB: 218-219

Reading:

McPhee Ch 10-11.

Hufton, “In Search of Counterrevolutionary Women” from Women and the Limits of Citizenship in the French Revolution.

Group Work:

• Week 8             

Topic:

The Haitian Revolution

Primary material:

Popkin, Facing Racial Revolution, 46-48, 235-244.

Reading:

Geggus, Haitian Revolution, Ch 1

Getachew, Adom. “Universalism After the Post-Colonial Turn: Interpreting the Haitian Revolution.” Political Theory 44, no. 6 (2016): 821–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26419440.

Group Work:

• Week 9           

Topic:

The Terror

Primary material:

KMB: 331-337, 340-354, 369-384

Reading:

McPhee Ch 12-13.

Kafka, Ben. “The Demon of Writing: Paperwork, Public Safety, and the Reign of Terror.” Representations (Berkeley, Calif.) 98.1 (2007): 1–24. Web.

Group Work:

• Week 10            

Topic:

Thermidor and Directory

Primary material:

LMTR: 263-275, 311-313, 323-327

Reading:

McPhee Ch 14-15.

Desan, Suzanne. “Redefining Revolutionary Liberty: The Rhetoric of Religious Revival during the French Revolution.” The Journal of Modern History 60, no. 1 (1988): 2–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1880404.

Group Work:

• Week 11            

Topic:

Napoleon: domestic

Primary material:

LMTR: 334-347

Reading:

Dwyer, Citizen Emperor, Ch 1-2.

Martin, “Napoleonic Friendship in the Ranks,” from Napoleonic Friendship: Military Fraternity, Intimacy, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century France.

Group Work:

• Week 12           

Topic:

Napoleon: conquest

Primary material:

https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/images/goethe-and-napoleon-i-meeting-in-erfurt-germany-in-the-governors-palace/

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/letters/1806-10-13.htm

Reading:

Dwyer, Citizen Emperor, Ch 9-11.

Tozzi, Christopher. “Jews, Soldiering, and Citizenship in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.” The Journal of Modern History 86, no. 2 (2014): 233–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/675484.

Group Work:

• Week 13           

Topic:

Napoleon: retreat

Primary material:

LMTR: 348-351

Reading:

Dwyer, Citizen Emperor, Ch 19-20, 25.

Buck-Morss, Susan. “Hegel and Haiti.” Critical Inquiry 26, no. 4 (2000): 821–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344332. Buck-Morss, Susan. “Hegel and Haiti.” Critical Inquiry 26, no. 4 (2000): 821–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344332.

Group Work:

Other Readings

Keith M. Baker. University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 7 The Old Regime and the French Revolution,  University of Chicago Press, 1987. 

Mason Laura and Tracey Rizzo. The French Revolution: A Document Collection. Houghton Mifflin 1999.

Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. [Rev. Ed.]. New York: Basic Books, 2009. 

Assignments and Assessments

*Please note that the requirements and assignments will likely change depending on the number of students who enroll in the course.

• Quizzes (in-class):

There will be 4 short quizzes at the start of class. 10 points for the first quiz, 15 points for each of the following quizzes.

• Secondary source write-ups:

Each student will, in their group, complete 3 write-ups of an assigned article. Those who choose to use AI in this exercise may, though they should do it critically. More detail on this to come. 5 points each.

• Take-home final:

This will be based on the primary sources from the semester. 10 points.

• Tutorial:

20 points.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at here.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. 
• Students are fully aware that their work may be investigated by AI content detection software to determine originality.
• Students are fully aware of the AI approach(es) adopted in the course. In the case where some AI tools are allowed, students have made proper acknowledgment and citations as instructed by the course teacher.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

The copyright of the teaching materials, including lecture notes, assignments and examination questions etc., produced by staff members/ teachers of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) belongs to CUHK. Students may download the teaching materials produced by the staff members/ teachers from the Learning Management Systems, e.g. Blackboard adopted by CUHK for their own educational use, but shall not distribute/ share/ copy the materials to a third-party without seeking prior permission from the staff members/ teachers concerned.