Make-up for last Wednesday's lecture

The reading that would be the perfect substitute for last Wednesday's lecture is, unfortunately, still not on reserve. I'm not sure why this is the case, but I'll call the library and try to get to the bottom of it. Obviously it won't be ready for Monday, but I will want you to at least skim the material before the midterm.

In the meantime, we need to move forward with the syllabus and plunge into the origins lectures, so to make up for our canceled class, please read the following lectures:

1. "The Origins of the French Revolution" at The History Guide.
2. "The Ancien Regime and the Intellectual Challenges of the 17th and 18th Centuries"

These are both cursory lectures about the estate system and the monarchy in pre-Revolutionary France, but I hope they'll at least give you some bullet points to remember alongside the information in Popkin. If any of the topics remain unclear, the first chapter of any of the general textbooks I put on reserve will discuss the social and political structures of old regime France. If you didn't have any problems with the first chapter of Popkin, then you can just quickly skim these two lectures.

In addition, I would like you to read the first chapter of Gary Kates (ed.), The French Revolution: recent debates and new controversies. This is available on-line via NetLibrary. Because you need to sign in with your GMU ID to use NetLibrary, I cannot post a link to take you there directly. You can find this book by following these steps:

1. Go to the GMU Libraries website (accessible via the university's homepage).
2. Search the catalog using either the author's name or the title.
3. In either case, you'll see that the library has three copies of this title. Click on the entry that says "Electronic Resource (available through Internet/WWW).
4. At the bottom of the record, click on the hyperlink that says "Electronic book available to GMU students, faculty and staff."
5. Enter your GMU ID to continue to NetLibrary (if you're connecting remotely).
6. When the Kates book appears, click on "View this E-book."
7. The table of contents will be on the left-hand side of the screen. Click on chapter one (you may have to click on part one first to get a drop-down menu of individual chapters) and read from there.
   
8. NOTE: if several people are logged on to read this at the same time, you might get a message saying that all the library's e-copies are in use. You can either check back later or you can click on the link that allows you to be notified via e-mail when the book is ready.

I think it's important to read the Kates chapter before you read the Lucas and Van Kley articles, if possible. Again, you don't necessarily need to remember all the authors Kates mentioned, but it is important for you to recognize some of the historiographical trends in the study of the French Revolution. This is especially important before we start talking about the origins of the Revolution; as Kates and Lucas will make clear, there are many different interpretations of the origins question. You need to understand that going into your subsequent reading.