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.

Reading questions, ch. 10

You only need to read documents 64 & 65 from chapter 10. Please answer both of these questions.

• R.R. Palmer wrote that this was Robespierre's most important speech. Why? How does it define the purpose of the Terror? What is Robespierre's vision of the ideal republic?
• What does Saint-Just's speech tell us about his political attitudes? Who were the enemies of the Republic in his eyes? How radical are Saint-Just's ideas?
  

Reading questions, ch. 9

Please answer two of the following questions.

• How does the Declaration of Rights which preceded the Constitution of Year I differ from that which was written in 1789? What inspired these changes? (The 1789 version is on page 101.)
• According to the minutes of the National Convention meeting on Sept. 5, 1793, how did the Convention meet the needs of the sans-culottes? How does Danton's speech presage the Terror?
• According to the Law of Suspects, what made one a suspect? What were the penalties for being a political suspect?
• Why did the Convention outlaw women's clubs and popular societies? Did the Convention imagine any political role for women during the Terror?
• What is Danton's argument for relaxing the Terror in January 1794? How does he propose to retreat from the Terror?
• How did Barère justify the Maximum in 1794? What amendments did he propose for stabilizing the economy?
• Why does the Law of 22 prairial II represent the high point of the Terror? How did this law provoke a sharp increase in the number of executions?
  

Reading questions, ch. 8

Please answer two of the following questions.

• In the two excerpts which make up document #43, Mason and Rizzo point out that the definitions of sans-culottes and their enemies tend "to conflate political opinions with social status"? Where do you see examples of such conflation?
• In document 44, what does the address of the sans-culottes to the National Convention say about their views of private property? What circumstances in France influenced their proposals?
• According to Marat (in document 45), what were the main problems facing France in the early months of the Republic? What measures did he believe should be taken to protect national security?
• In document 46, Hébert's course language reflects his commitment to speak the language of the people. Language aside, do his views coincide with those of the sans-culottes? Why or why not?
• In document 47, Mason and Rizzo suggest the goals of the Society for Revolutionary Republican Women were similar to those of the sans-culottes. Where do you see evidence of this in the document?
• In Toussaint Louverture's letter to General Laveaux (document 48c), how does he defend his decision to accept arms from the Spanish?
• In document 50, how does Parham justify his claim that "the philosophes in general and the abolitionists in particular" were to blame for the violence of the revolution in Saint-Domingue?
• What does document 51 tell us about the justifications for the federalist revolt? Was it counter-revolutionary? How was it different from the Vendée?
• Compare the two viewpoints of the Vendean civil war in document 52. How does each side defend his/her position?
  

Speeches on the king's trial

1. How does Morrison defend the right of kingship?

2. What is the Girondin position on the trial of the king, as expressed by Condorcet?

Revised reading schedule

If you've kept up with the reading on the syllabus, that's fine (it certainly doesn't hurt to be ahead of the game). But since we're not yet through the Terror, you can go ahead and push the readings back one week. I'll let you know which lectures I'll be dropping.

No class on Monday, April 6

Due to an emergency, I have to cancel class for Monday, April 6. To make up for the lecture I would have given about the civil war in the Vendée, I will ask you to read about it in ch. 9 of Arno Mayer's book, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions. This is available on-line through NetLibrary. (The directions for accessing the chapter are below.)

Please take notes, as I will give a quiz devoted solely to that chapter on Monday, April 13. The information in the chapter will be part of the material for which you are responsible on the final exam. (This is especially important if you were to choose to write about violence.)

Don't worry about what Mayer has to say about historiography on the topic (though I would still give that a read) and don't get too bogged down when he starts drawing parallels to things that happened outside of France. You should walk away from the chapter with a sense of why the Vendean rebels rose up against the Revolution, the distinct phases of the Vendée militaire, and the scope of Jacobin response (in particular, why was it so brutal?). Heads on pikes will seem like child's play when you read about the hurt that Carrier brought down on Nantes.

Please check the blog on Monday for discussion questions from this week's and last's reading.

See you on Wednesday.

To access the chapter:

1. Go to www.netlibrary.com and sign in. You should have an account from when you had to read the chapter from Gary Kates. If you don't, you can create an account from the homepage.
2. Search for the book using either the title or the author's name.
3. Click on "view this e-book."
4. From the menu on the left side of the screen, look for Part III: Metropolitan Condescension and Rural Mistrust. Click on the + sign next to the section title for a drop-down menu of chapters.
5. Click on Chapter 9: Peasant War in France.
6. When the chapter comes up, you can move the line separating the text and the menu on the left in order to expand the text to full-screen. The navigation buttons for turning the pages are on the top right of the text.