Hist158: Revolutionary France

Available 2008/2009

Module Convenor: Dr John Strachan

This course has two main objectives. The first is to introduce students to the history of the revolutionary era in France (circa 1750-1850) - the extraordinary political and social upheavals of the period, the diversity of interpretations of these events and the immense importance of the French Revolution in the history of the modern world. The second is to use the historiography of revolutionary France as a lens through which to study wider trends in Western history and historiography in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Central to the course are the ways in which revolutionary France has been appropriated by historians and others and the complex relationship between societies, cultures and the histories that they produce.

Beginning with an overview of the history and historiography of revolutionary France, the first part of the course focuses on the work of nineteenth-century historians. In this period, the history and memory of the Revolution were intimately connected to ongoing political conflicts and the emergence of France as a modern nation-state. Revolutionary France was also crucial to the development of History as an academic discipline and figured heavily in the works of such important figures as Hegel and Marx. In the first part of the twentieth century, interpretations of revolutionary France were deeply affected by new academic disciplines and by the intellectual fallout of the Russian Revolution. Here, the emphasis was firmly on economic and social change. The final section of the course deals with the more recent historiography of the Revolution, using revolutionary France as a means of introducing students to a variety of forms of cultural history. The course concludes with an assessment of the ongoing significance of the revolutionary era in the identity and political culture of twenty-first-century France.

Teaching Arrangements: One lecture and one seminar per week in the Lent and Summer Terms (weeks one and two).

Preliminary Reading: M. Crook (ed.), Revolutionary France: 1788-1880 (Oxford, 2001); F. Furet, Revolutionary Frace: 1770-1880 (Blackwell, 1995)

Page last updated: 22 August 2008

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