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:
- The sans-culottes as a political force
- The Terror (origins through aftermath)
- The transfer of political power from one faction to another (think coups and the like)
1. What does document #81 tell us about the debate surrounding the use of the republican calendar?
ReplyDeleteI think people are angry because they are still religious and the government is trying to take away their religion. The government is giving no room for religion to stand on. Sunday also tells Decadi that his Kingdom is not of this world or the other. I believe by saying this he is trying to say he is Godly and religion will always live. However, the Kingdom that the French and Decadi have created is wrong, its not meant to be.
From here on out it’s just a conversation between the two trying to show how absurd Christianity is. Decadi then states how religious holiday take the people away from their work so they are not productive and instead they are drunk. Sunday then tries to use the argument that the new calendar confused the people. Decadi points out though how Sunday’s calendar confuses him. He points out how it takes after the Greeks, the ones who the Christians mutilated because they were pagans. He then asks why only the people in Europe are forced to be Christian and Sunday answers because everyone else is erroneous and uses their reason to reason against Christianity. Decadi then gives the idea that religion is only for aristocrats because it teaches blind obedience and while he believes in the God who created the universe people of religion only believe in the God of men who they’ve never meet before. I believe this dialogue does a good job in pointing out the absurdity of religion in trying to get its point across, especially at the end when Decadi offers Sunday that they both coexist and simple refuses. Due to the fact that Decadi uses his reason and doesn’t believe in false things, it gives hope for the people to believe in the new calendar, even if religion is really a part of it.
Steph Talarek