Monash University Arts Undergraduate Handbook, 1997

FRN3280

The French Revolution and its legacy

Proposed to be offered next in 1998

D Garrioch and J Birnberg

8 points
* 2 lectures and 1 tutorial per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
* Prohibited combination: HSY3280 (Revolutionary and Napoleonic France)

Objectives Students completing this subject should be familiar with the key events of the French Revolution and with its legacy to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They should have reflected on the nature and consequences of revolutionary upheaval, and be aware of the main interpretations of the Revolution.

Synopsis The French Revolution was one of the most extraordinary political and social experiments in European history. This subject studies the course of the revolution and the subsequent attempts, between 1795 and 1815, to resolve the issues it raised. Special attention will be given to popular protest and its causes, to the significance of religious conflict, to the relationship between Paris and the provinces, to women's role in the revolution and to the social and economic background of political divisions. Particular attention will be given in tutorials to the long-term legacy of the revolution in the fields of ideology and culture, with regard to such topics as the left wing/right wing dichotomy, Jacobinism, Republicanism, Bonapartism and the major French writers' attitudes towards the revolution and Napoleon.

Assessment Class paper: 30%
* Research essay (4000 words): 70%

Prescribed texts

Recueil de textes Monash U

Recommended texts

Best G (ed.) The French Revolution and its legacy, 1789-1989 Fontana

Doyle W The Oxford history of the French Revolution OUP

Hunt L Politics, culture and class in the French Revolution Methuen

Jones P The Peasantry in the French Revolution CUP

Lewis G The French Revolution: Rethinking the debate Routledge

Vovelle M La Révolution française 1789-1799 A Colin

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