Final exam

The final exam is on Monday, May 11, from 10:30 AM until 1:15 PM. It will take place in our regular classroom. Please remember to bring a blue book for the exam (preferably the 8.5" x 11" kind).

The final exam is not cumulative. It will cover the lectures from March 25 through May 4 (the immediate aftermath of 10 August 1792 through the overthrow of the Directory). The structure will be the same as the midterm. You will choose five terms to identify from a list of ten, as well as answer one essay question.

You have a considerable amount of time to take a fairly limited test, so make good use of that time: think carefully about your responses before you begin writing. Use the back of the exam paper to outline your essay or jot notes to yourself about key points that you don't want to forget. You might consider using the first several minutes of the exam period to think about the documents you read in Mason & Rizzo and writing some notes to remind yourself of which documents you could include in your essay. I would say that the most common problem with the midterms was the lack of any evidence that you had done the reading. (Just writing something like, "According to Popkin, the French Revolution started in 1789..." doesn't cut it.)

I will ask essay questions about the following topics:

1. The sans-culottes as a political force
2. The Terror (origins through aftermath)
3. The transfer of political power from one faction to another (think coups and the like)

Good luck with your studying!

Reading questions, ch. 15

• In document #84, how does Bonaparte defend his actions during the coup of 18 Brumaire?
• According to document #85, what were the key features of the Concordat of 1801? Why do you think Bonaparte reached this agreement with the papacy?
• From the excerpts in document #86, why was the French Civil Code considered detrimental to the rights of women?
• What can you tell about Napoleon's views regarding race and slavery from the excerpts that make up document #87?
  

Reading questions, ch. 14

Remember, if you have already met your participation quota, you don't need to bother with these questions. For those of you who missed a few weeks, this is a chance to improve your participation grade.

• In document #80, where do you see the sort of evidence that would make historians believe that the religious revival of the late 1790s was anti-revolutionary? Where do you see evidence to support the claim that one could be both religious and committed to the Revolution?
• What does document #81 tell us about the debate surrounding the use of the republican calendar?
• In document #83, where do you see evidence of both the editors' social conservatism and moderate republicanism?

Monday's lecture

With only three class sessions left in the semester, I want to forge ahead so that we can get to the fall of the Directory on Monday, May 4. So on Monday, April 27, I will be jumping ahead to the Thermidorian Reaction. This means that I won't be lecturing on Danton's execution or the fall of Robespierre. Please make sure that you have reviewed Popkin's material on the coup of 9 thermidor II so that you're prepared for Monday's lecture.

In addition, I will be sending everyone some notes on the final months of the Terror to round out what Popkin has to say. I will be sending these as an attachment to your GMU e-mail addresses. If you have any questions about these notes, please feel free to contact me via e-mail or talk to me before or after class this week.

Deadline for Terror comments has passed

Comments are due no later than one week after I posted the questions. Therefore the deadline has passed for comments on chapters 8 - 10. If you submitted comments for those chapters after Wed., April 22, then you will need to submit make-up comments (the questions for which will be posted next week).

Please focus your attention on the questions for chapters 11 - 13.

Reading questions, ch. 13

• Gracchus Babeuf has been called a "proto-Communist" by some historians. What arguments does Babeuf put forward in The Plebeians' Manifesto (document #75) that might make one arrive at that conclusion?
• Jullien's pamphlet, Some Advice to Cisalpine Patriots (document #76), is an example of neo-Jacobin propaganda? What in this pamphlet reminds you of the Jacobin Club before the end of Terror? In what ways had the Jacobins' ideology or agenda changed?
• According to the anonymous pamphleteer of "On the True Cause of the Revolution" (document #78), what were the worst abuses of the Revolution? Had these abuses abated by 1797?

Reading questions, ch. 12

• In document #71, how does the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Citizens differ from the versions of 1789 and 1793? What developments in the history of the Revolution account for these differences?
• How does the law described in document #72 reveal the Directory's concern to curb the excesses of both the left and right in French politics?
• According to document #73, why did the Council of Five Hundred close down all political clubs? How did the deputies justify this bold measure?
• In document #74, how does the Directory justify the coup of 18 fructidor V? What is the remaining Directors' vision of the Republic?

Reading questions, ch. 11

• In document #66, how does Tallien describe the mechanisms of the Terror? How does it work as a system of exercising power?
• In document #66, how does Tallien compare the Terror to the monarchy of the old regime?
• According to document #68, why did the people of Paris rise up in germinal III? What were the people's demands?
• According to document #68, how did the National Convention respond to both the germinal and prairial uprisings in the spring of 1795?
• Mason and Rizzo point out that the Declaration of Verona (document #69), issued by Comte de Provence (the future Louis XVIII), "stifle[d] royalist attempts at Restoration." Why would this be the case?

Your comments

I will be rejecting any comments that a) don't answer the question in its entirety or b) are composed mainly of direct quotations from the document. The purpose of the exercise is for you to read and analyze the document. You have not proven your analytical ability if you just start copying directly from the text.

Reading schedule for the rest of the semester

For the purposes of participation and potential quizzes, you should have chapter 9 in Mason & Rizzo (as well as documents 64 & 65 in ch.10) completed for Monday, April 20. (Though you still have one week from the date on which questions were posted to comment on the blog.)

Chapters 11, 12 & 13 should be read by Monday, April 27 in order to be ready for a potential quiz, with blog comments due no later than one week after I have posted the reading questions.

You will not be quizzed on chapters 14 & 15. The only document from those chapters that might be relevant to an essay on the final exam would be document #84. I will, however, post reading questions for those chapters so that those of you who have not been diligent about commenting on the blog will have a chance to earn some credit towards your participation grade.

You can finish Popkin at your own pace. You won't be quizzed on that material, though you do need to have the book finished by the final exam. We'll be discussing the Terror this week, the Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory next week, and the fall of the Directory on the last day of classes.