Readings

Required Readings

The following books are required readings.

[Beik] = Beik, William, ed. Louis XIV and Absolutism: A Brief Study with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture). Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. ISBN: 9780312227432.

[Blaufarb] = Blaufarb, Rafe. Napoleon: A Symbol for an Age: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture). Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. ISBN: 9780312431105.

Supplemental Readings

The following books are optional. They are mentioned from time to time, and may be useful reference materials for projects or discussions.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1979. ISBN: 9780844619736. (Seminal work in the history of this period; first published in 1856, and still highly relevant.)

Jones, Colin. The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (New Penguin History of France). Penguin, 2003. ISBN: 9780140130935. (The best recent one volume study of this period in English.)

Furet, François, and Mona Ozouf, eds. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780674177284. [Preview with Google Books] (Very useful articles on major events, individuals, ideas, and institutions of the revolutionary period.)

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction  
2 The Material World and the Political Background
  • Ravel, Jeffrey. "France." In Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Edited by Alan Charles Kors. 4 vols. Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 60-65. ISBN: 9780195104332.
  • Félix, Joël. "The Economy." In Old Regime France: 1648-1788 (Short Oxford History of Europe). Edited by William Doyle. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1-41. ISBN: 9780198731290.
3 1789: Lists of Grievances
  • Beik, Paul Harold, ed. "Lists of Grievances." In The French Revolution. Macmillan, 1971, pp. 45-63. ISBN: 9780802720368.
  • Levy, Darline Gay, ed. "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King." In Women in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1795. Translated and edited by Harriet Branson Applewhite and Mary Durham Johnson. University of Illinois Press, 1981, pp. 18-21. ISBN: 9780252008559. [Preview with Google Books]
  • Campbell, Peter Robert, ed. "Peasants and Their Grievances." In The Origins of the French Revolution (Problems in Focus). Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 239-67. ISBN: 9780333949719.
4 The Theory and Practice of Absolutism under Louis XIV
  • Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, and Patrick Riley. Bossuet: Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). Edited by Patrick Riley. Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 168-70. ISBN: 9780521368070. [Preview with Google Books]
  • [Beik], pp. 1-16, and 50-96.
5 Taxes and Provincial Reform
  • [Beik], pp. 96-155.
6 Tartuffe I
7 Tartuffe II
  • Chartier, Roger. "From Court Festivity to City Spectators." In Forms and Meanings: Texts, Performances, and Audiences from Codex to Computer (New Cultural Studies). University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995, pp. 43-82, and 106-10. ISBN: 9780812215465. [Preview with Google Books]
  • Howarth, William Driver, ed. "Documents Regarding French Theater in Molière's Day." In French Theatre in the Neo-classical Era, 1550-1789. Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 158-9, 170-80, 242-49, and 276-79. ISBN: 9780521230131. [Preview with Google Books]
8 Introduction to the Eighteenth Century  
9 Religion in France from Louis XIV to the Revolution
  • [Beik], pp. 170-98.
  • David A. Bell. "Culture and Religion." In Old Regime France: 1648-1788. Edited by William Doyle. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 78-104. ISBN: 9780198731290.
  • http://www.wga.hu/index1.html
10 The Encyclopédie I
  • Diderot, Denis. The Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert: Selected Articles. Edited by John Lough. Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780521113465. 
- "Frontispiece and Explanation."

- "Tree of Knowledge."

  • Darnton, Robert. "Philosophers Trim the Tree of Knowledge: The Epistemological Strategy of the Encyclopédie." In The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. Basic Books, 1984, pp. 191-213. ISBN: 9780465027002.
  • Diderot, Denis and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, eds. Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. André le Breton, Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durand, and Antoine-Claude Briasson, 1751.
- Diderot, Denis. "Art." pp. 713-7.

- Villeneuve, Joachim Faiguet de. "Sunday." pp. 1007-9.

- d'Alembert, Jean Le Rond. "Preliminary Discourse." pp. i-xlv.

- Diderot, Denis. "Detailed Explanation of the System of Human Knowledge." pp. xlvii-li.
[All translations are provided by The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. MPublishers, University of Michigan Library (2003).]
11 The Encyclopédie II
12 Mahomet I
  • Voltaire, and François-Marie Arouet. Mahomet. Translated by William F. Fleming. Wilder Publications, 2011. ISBN: 9781617202582.
  • Ravel, Jeffrey S. The Contested Parterre: Public Theater and French Political Culture, 1680-1791. Cornell University Press, 1999, pp. 19-66. ISBN: 9780801485411. [Preview with Google Books]
13 Mahomet II
  • Jacob, Margaret C., ed. "The Treatise of the Three Impostors." In The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture). Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000, pp. 94-114. ISBN: 9780312179977.
  • Mallet, Edme-François. "Mohammedanism." The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project 9 (1765): 864-8.
  • Voltaire. Dictionnaire philosophique. French & European Publications, 1964. ISBN: 9780686557456.
- "Mohammedans." p. 220. [View on Hanover.edu.Translation by H. I. Woolf. Dover Publications, 2010.]

- "Alcoran." pp. 67-77. [Preview on Google Books]
14 Popular Culture and Politics I: Workers and Servants
  • Darnton, Robert. "Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-Séverin." In The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. Basic Books, 2009, pp. 75-104. ISBN: 9780465027002.
  • Ravel, Jeffrey S., "The Coachman's Bare Rump: An Eighteenth-Century French Cover-Up." Eighteenth-Century Studies 40, no. 2 (2007): 279-308.
15 Popular Culture and Politics II: Theater and Song
16 1789: The Abolition of Feudalism and the Rights of Man
  • Censer, Jack R., and Lynn Avery Hunt. "Enlightenment and Human Rights." Chapter 3 in Liberity, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780271020884.
  • Mason, Laura, and Tracey Rizzo. "Legislating an Enlightened Regime." In The French Revolution: A Document Collection. Edited by Laura Mason. Houghton Mifflin, 1999, pp. 98-117.
  • Baker, Keith M. "Decrees of the National Assembly (10-11 August 1789)." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 7: The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Edited by Keith M. Baker and John W. Boyer. University Of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 226-31. ISBN: 9780226069500. [Preview with Google Books]
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXsZbkt0yqo
17 The Revolution and Religion
  • Baker, Keith M. "The Civil Constitution of the Clergy." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 7: The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Edited by Keith M. Baker and John W. Boyer. University Of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 239-42. ISBN: 9780226069500. [Preview with Google Books]
  • Rizzo, Tracey, and Laura Mason, eds. The French Revolution: A Document Collection. Edited by Laura Mason. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
- "The Debate Over the Civil Constitution of the Clergy." pp. 144-52.

- "Revolution in Society and Culture." pp. 248-54.

  • Baker, Keith M. "The Festival of the Supreme Being, 8 June 1794." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 7: The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Edited by Keith M. Baker and John W. Boyer. University Of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 384-91. ISBN: 9780226069500. [Preview with Google Books]
18 Slavery, Feminism, and the Revolution
  • Censer, Jack R., and Lynn Avery Hunt. Liberity, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780271020884.
- "Women and Revolution." Chapter 5. 

- "Slavery and the Haitian Revolution." Chapter 8.

  • Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. "From Slavery to Emancipation." In Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Series in History and Culture). Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006, pp. 111-32. ISBN: 9780312415013.
  • Hunt, Lynn Avery, ed. "Debates on Women's Rights." In The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History (Bedford Series in History and Culture). Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996, pp. 119-39. ISBN: 9780312108021.
19 Theater, Politics, and Society During the Revolution
  • Kadish, Doris Y., and Francoise Massardier-Kenney, eds. "Black Slavery, or The Happy Shipwreck." In Translating Slavery, Volume I: Gender and Race in French Abolitionist Writing, 1780-1830 (Translation Studies). Kent State University Press, 2009, pp. 65-129. ISBN: 9781606350089.
20 The Dilemma of the Terror  
21 Napoleon, the Politician and Legislator
  • [Blaufarb], pp. 52-100.
22 Napoleon, the Emperor
  • [Blaufarb], pp. 1-29, and 140-94.