Courses:

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1. Please write a five-page paper in response to one of the topics below. The text should be double-spaced. The paper is due at the beginning of class on session 6.
   
   
2. Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered.
   
   
3. Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes 'Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13) Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form.

1. Was the Roman Catholic Church hostile to science in the seventeenth century? Consider the evidence from the Galileo materials we have read and discussed, including the chapter from Margaret Jacob's Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West and content on the Galileo Project Web site.
   
   
2. Is Galileo best described as a courtier and a craven careerist, or as a committed Copernican and a natural philosopher (today we say scientist) devoted to the discovery of truths? Respond by analyzing his intentions in publishing The Starry Messenger in 1610.
   
   
3. Which authorities did Descartes wish to destabilize by writing his Discourse on Method? Which authorities did he wish to reinforce? Be sure to cite specific passages to support your argument. You may also wish to refer to Hunt, et. al., The Making of the West, for appropriate context.
   

1. Please write a five-page paper in response to one of the topics below. The text should be double-spaced. The paper is due at the beginning of class on session 13.
   
   
2. Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered.
   
   
3. Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes' Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13) Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form.

1. Compare Descartes and Spinoza on one or both of the following topics: the nature of God, and the relation between the mind and the body. Which thinker's ideas were educated European elites more likely to accept ca. 1700?
   
   
2. The year is 1700. Imagine you are one of the following: the Pope, the King of France, an educated English aristocrat (male or female), the owner of a commercial printing press (male or female), or a Jewish merchant operating out of Amsterdam. You have just finished reading a clandestinely circulated manuscript, not yet available in print, titled The Treatise of the Three Impostors. Write a letter to a friend, or a journal entry, in which you describe your response to the ideas put forth in the manuscript. (Be sure to respond to specific ideas in the text.)
   
   
3. Descartes and Spinoza provided powerful critiques of established religious and political authorities. Yet by 1750, it was Lockean epistemology and Newtonian scientific method that most inspired educated Europeans, not Cartesian methodology or Spinozist theological doubt. Leave aside the matter of who was right; what political, social, and cultural factors made the ideas of Locke and Newton more compelling than those of Descartes and Newton by the mid-eighteenth century?
   
   
4. Both at the time and in the view of subsequent critics, theater in the Age of Enlightenment was seen as a form of philosophical pamphleteering, rather than as a form of entertainment. To what extent is this assertion true in the case of Lessing's Nathan the Wise? Do you detect echoes of any earlier thinkers we have read in Lessing's play?
   
   
5. Analyze a primary source from our period that we have not discussed in class. Possibilities include literature, plays, essays, paintings, sculpture, or architecture of the period. You may wish to visit some of the libraries on the university campus to get some ideas. Do not hesitate to ask me for recommendations if you wish to work on a primary source but do not have a specific one in mind. Discuss the content and style of the work, and place it within the context of themes we have discussed this semester. If you choose this option, you must get my approval for the source by session 10.
   
   
6. Read a secondary monograph on a topic of interest that you would like to explore in greater depth. For example, you may wish to read more about the life of a writer, artist, or political figure from the period. Or you may want to learn more about natural philosophy or political thought during the Age of Reason. Once you have read the monograph, write a paper in which you summarize the work's argument in not more than one or two pages, then place it within the context of the themes we have been discussing. Do not write a book report! To locate a secondary work, consult the bibliographies at the end of each chapter in Hunt, et al., The Making of the West , or ask me for suggestions. If you choose this option, you must get my approval for the monograph by session 10.

1. Please write a five-page paper in response to one of the topics below. The text should be double-spaced. The paper is due at the beginning of class on session 20.
   
   
2. Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered.
   
   
3. Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes' Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13) Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form.

1. Read one of the substantive (i.e., more than two paragraphs long) articles from the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert. (English translations of selected articles are available here.) Would you argue that the article's content is reformist or revolutionary?
   
   
2. At a superficial level, the trials of Charles I and Louis XVI are similar: each monarch was tried by a body of elected representatives, each was found guilty and executed, and each ruler's dynasty was restored to the throne within a generation. But they took place a century and a half apart, in different historical contexts. Given these differences, write an essay in which you argue that one trial had more important, longer-lasting implications than the other.
   
   
3. Compare the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen," issued by the National Assembly in August 1789, and Olympe de Gouges' "Declaration of the Rights of Woman," published in 1791 but never ratified by any revolutionary assembly. What critiques does de Gouges offer of the principles of 1789 as embodied in the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen."
   
   
4. The year is 1821. Imagine you are one of the following: King Louis XVIII of France; the Pope; a parish priest in provincial France; an elderly, exiled member of the National Convention in 1793-1794; an elderly aristocrat (male or female) who had championed Voltaire or Rousseau before the Revolution; or a French worker (male or female) in a newly-mechanized Parisian factory. You have just read excerpts from Joseph de Maistre's recently published Evenings in St Petersburg. Write a journal entry or a letter to a friend in which you express your views of this text.
   
   
5. Analyze a primary source from our period that we have not discussed in class. Possibilities include literature, plays, essays, paintings, sculpture, or architecture of the period. You may wish to visit some of the libraries on the university campus to get some ideas. Do not hesitate to ask me for recommendations if you wish to work on a primary source but do not have a specific one in mind. Discuss the content and style of the work, and place it within the context of themes we have discussed this semester. If you choose this option, you must get my approval for the source by session 19.
   
   
6. Read a secondary monograph on a topic of interest that you would like to explore in greater depth. For example, you may wish to read more about the life of a writer, artist, or political figure from the period. Or you may want to learn more about natural philosophy or political thought during the Age of Reason. Once you have read the monograph, write a paper in which you summarize the work's argument in not more than one or two pages, then place it within the context of the themes we have been discussing. Do not write a book report! To locate a secondary work, consult the bibliographies at the end of each chapter in Hunt, et. al., The Making of the West, or ask me for suggestions. If you choose this option, you must get my approval for the monograph by session 19.

1. Please write a paper of no less than five pages in response to one of the topics below. The text should be double-spaced. The paper is due at the beginning of class on session 26.
   
   
2. Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered.
   
   
3. Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes' Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13) Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form.

1. The French Revolution began in 1789. When did it end?
   
   
2. Did Christianity have more or less authority in the minds of Europeans in 1860 than it did in 1600? Discuss the historical reasons for the growth or decline of this authority.
   
   
3. Was it evident by 1860 that the use of reason to reform human affairs had improved the spiritual well-being and material prosperity of humanity?
   

We will stage the trial of Louis XVI in two class sessions on Tuesday, session 15. Each student will portray one of the characters listed below. Students will be responsible for preparing a position paper for their character of not less than two pages double-spaced. You will turn in the position paper to me, and I will evaluate it as part of your grade for this exercise, in addition to your in-class performance.

The question put before the court will be the following: "Is the citizen Louis Capet, formally known as Louis XVI, King of France, guilty of committing treasonous acts against the French nation?" Two judges, to be named, will preside over the trial. It will be their task to determine whether the king is guilty, based on the evidence they have heard.

The trial will proceed in the following fashion over the course of the two days. First, statements will be made by the "historical" witnesses, and the attorneys for the King and the National Convention will examine them. Then contemporary witnesses will present statements, followed by examinations by both sides. Then members of the Convention will present their views, but they will not be subject to cross-examination. Finally, Capet and his wife will take the stand in defense of the former King, followed by closing statements by each of the attorneys. Although the outcome of the trial will not be pre-determined (that is, the judges may ultimately decide to acquit the King if they think the evidence merits it), I will expect each of you to present historically accurate versions of the views your character held.

You must select a character to play by session 5; if you not notify me of your selection by then, I will assign you a character.

Hunt, Lynn et al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. Vol. B: 1320-1830. Boston, MA: Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2000, pp. 733-73. ISBN: 9780312183707.

"Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 237-9. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Gouges, Olympe de. "Declaration of the Rights of Women." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 261-8. ISBN: 9780226069500.

"The Constitution of 1791." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 249-61. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Censer, and Hunt. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. (Click "Explore", then "The Monarchy Embattled," and "The Monarchy Falls". Study all documents, images, and songs that accompany these two sections on the site. You may wish to browse other sections as well, depending on the character you play.)

Louis Capet, formerly known as Louis XVI

Readings

Furet, François. "Louis XVI." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989 , pp. 234-43. ISBN: 9780674177284.

"Louis XVI on the Subject of His Flight." In The French Revolution. Edited by Paul Beik. New York: Harper & Row, 1970, pp. 158-68.

Marie-Antoinette, his wife and formerly the Queen

Readings

Revel, Jacques. "Marie-Antoinette." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by Furet and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 252-64. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Sheriff, Mary D. "The Portrait of the Queen." In Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen. Edited by Dena Goodman. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 45-71. ISBN: 9780415933957.

Malesherbes (Attorney for Capet; two students)

Readings

No additional readings. Instead, you should prepare a list of questions to ask each of the historical and contemporary witnesses, including Louis Capet and Marie-Antoinette. You should determine which witnesses will be favorable to your case, and which unfavorable, in advance. (You will not have the opportunity to examine or cross-examine the four members of the Convention who will speak.) You will not make an opening statement, but you will be given time for a brief closing statement after the final witness has spoken.

Your brief two-page summary, to be turned in at the start of the trial, should be an outline of your trial strategy. You may wish to consult Ozouf, Mona. "King's Trial." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 95-106, ISBN: 9780674177284 for a sense of the strategies employed at the trial in 1792-3. But you are not obliged to follow those strategies.

Fouquier-Tinville (Prosecutor for the National Convention; two students)

Readings

No additional readings. Instead, you should prepare a list of questions to ask each of the historical and contemporary witnesses, including Louis Capet and Marie-Antoinette. You should determine which witnesses will be favorable to your case, and which unfavorable, in advance. (You will not have the opportunity to examine or cross-examine the four members of the Convention who will speak.) You will not make an opening statement, but you will be given time for a brief closing statement after the final witness has spoken.

Your brief two-page summary, to be turned in at the start of the trial, should be an outline of your trial strategy. You may wish to consult Ozouf, Mona. "King's Trial." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 95-106, ISBN: 9780674177284 for a sense of the strategies employed at the trial in 1792-3. But you are not obliged to follow those strategies.

René Descartes

Readings

Read the online biography of Descartes and browse the other materials on this site.

Review the Discourse on Method. How would Descartes respond to the trial of the king?

Charles I

Readings

Review Hunt, et al. The Making of the West. pp. 636-44.

Review Lagomarsino and Wood, particularly the King's speeches and his unspoken objection to the court's proceedings.

John Bradshaw

Readings

Review Hunt, et al. The Making of the West. pp. 636-44.

Review Lagomarsino and Wood, especially pp. 109-28.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Philosopher and political theorist, active 1750-1778)

Readings

Manin, Bernard. "Rousseau." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 829-43. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Excerpts from Discourse on Origins of Inequality and The Social Contract.

Jacques-Louis Ménétra (Parisian glazier, sans-culotte)

Readings

Ménétra, Jacques-Louis. Journal of My Life. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. New York, 1989, pp. 217-38, ISBN: 9780231061292. (Browse the remainder of the Journal, and read the "Forward" by Robert Darnton and the "Introduction" by Daniel Roche.)

"Documents of the Sans-Culottes." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 330-340. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Toussaint l’Ouverture (Leader of the slave rebellion in Saint Domingue)

Readings

"Slavery and the Haitian Revolution," a section of the site Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Be sure to click on the links for Toussaint in the left-hand sidebar of the second page.

James, C. L. R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Santo Domingo Revolution. London, UK; New York, NY: Penguin, 2001. ISBN: 9780140299816. (Browse)

Olympe de Gouges (Activist and playwright)

Readings

Levy, Applewhite, and Johnson, eds. "The Trial of a Feminist Revolutionary." In Women in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1795. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981, pp. 254-9. ISBN: 9780252008559.

Scott, Joan."The Uses of Imagination: Olympe de Gouges in the French Revolution." In Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man. Cambridge, MA:, 1996, pp. 19-56. ISBN: 9780674639300.  

Madame Roland (Wife of a prominent revolutionary, politically active)

Readings

Kelley, Linda. Women of the French Revolution. London: H. Hamilton, 1987, pp. 28-32, 50-5, 72-5, 91-5, and 115-22. ISBN: 9780241121122.

Yalom, Marilyn. "The Republic Vindicated and Violated: Starring Madame Roland." In Blood Sisters: The French Revolution in Women's Memory. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1993, pp. 74-96. ISBN:  9780465092635.

de la Platière, Jean-Marie Roland "Letter to the King (10 June 1792)." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 286-90. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Mason, Laura, and Tracey Rizzo, eds. "Manon Roland on the Meetings of the Girondins in her Home." In The French Revolution: A Document Collection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1999, pp. 157-9. ISBN: 9780669417807.

Jean-Paul Marat (Radical journalist)

Readings

Ozouf, Mona. "Marat." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 244-51. ISBN: 9780674177284.

"Jean-Paul Marat, The People's Friend." In The French Revolution: A Document Collection. Edited Laura Mason, and Tracey Rizzo. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, pp. 201-3. ISBN: 9780669417807.

Edmund Burke (English member of Parliament and philosopher)

Readings

Gengembre, Gérard. "Burke." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 916-23. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the Revolution in France." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987. pp. 428-45. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Mary Wollstonecraft (English writer and philosopher)

Readings

Wollstonecraft. "The Liberation of Mary Wollstonecraft - Life and Writings." In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992, pp. 1-20. ISBN: 9780679413370.

MacDonald, D. L., and Kathleen Scherf, eds. The Vindications. The Rights of Men. The Rights of Women. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1997, pp. 7-23, 101-25, ISBN: 9781551110882 and browse through the remainder of the The Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Morisson (deputy from the Vendée, opposed trial)

Readings

Walzer, Michael. "Speech of 13 November 1792." In Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI. London, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 110-20. ISBN: 9780521203708.

Ozouf, Mona. "King's Trial." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 95-106. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Thomas Paine (American, moderate)

Readings

Keane, John. "Thomas Paine." In Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Vol. 3. Edited by Alan Charles Kors. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 224-6. ISBN: 9780195104332.

Paine, Thomas. The Rights of Man. (A version of The Rights of Man is available from ushistory.org) (Browse)

Walzer, Michael. "Speech of 21 November 1792." In Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI. London, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 127-30. ISBN: 9780521203708.

———. "Speech of 7 January 1793." In Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI. London, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 208-14. ISBN: 9780521203708.

Ozouf, Mona. "Marat." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 95-106. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Condorcet (philosophe, opposed the execution of the King)

Readings

Baker, Keith. "Condorcet." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 204-12. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Walzer, Michael. "Speech of 7 January 1793." In Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI. London, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 139-58. ISBN: 9780521203708.

Ozouf, Mona. "King's Trial." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 95-106. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Saint-Just (hardline, radical Jacobin)

Readings

"The Social Ideas of Saint-Just." (Interesting, if somewhat biased, survey of Saint-Just's social thought.)

Walzer, Michael. "Speech of 13 November 1792." In Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI. London, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 120-27. ISBN: 9780674177284.

———. "Speech of 27 December 1792." In Regicide and Revolution: Speeches at the Trial of Louis XVI. London, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 162-77. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Ozouf, Mona. "King's Trial." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, 95-106. ISBN: 9780674177284.