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One of the most significant upheavals in world history was the French Revolution. This course investigates its origins, course, and outcomes.
This course is designed for you to complete successfully on your own. On this journey, however, you will not be alone. To get the most out of your learning, use the course resources and participate in the suggested learning activities. To successfully complete this course, you should devote at least six hours to each module over the course's six weeks. During that time, you should watch the video lectures, reflect on and respond to the pause points in the video, and complete the quizzes.
As part of the required reading for this course, you will have free access to a chapter of Peter McPhee's textbook, The French Revolution, which is also available for purchase as an e-book during each week of this course.
Watch the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/gstw4vv
Syllabus :
1. France in the 1780s
- Welcome to the French Revolution MOOC
- An Introduction to the French Revolution
- The Essentials of Eighteenth-Century France
- The First & Second Estates: Clergy and Nobility
- Paris and the Provinces
- The 'Enlightenment': 'from above'
- The 'Enlightenment': 'from below'
2. The Revolution of 1789
- An Atlantic crisis8m
- A fiscal crisis and its repercussions
- The Third Estate in revolt: bourgeoisie and menu people
- The Third Estate in revolt: the peasantry
- The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the August Decrees
- The October Days - the end of the Revolution?
3. The Reconstruction of France, 1789-92
- Making the new nation 1789-91
- The Revolution divides
- Turning-point 1: Church reform
- Turning-point 2: the King's flight June 1791
- Turning-point 3: The outbreak of war April 1792
- A second revolution: 10 August 1792
4. The Republic in crisis 1792-93
- September 1792: blood and death
- September 1792: republican unity and disunity in the National Convention
- Revolution and counter-revolution: the balance of forces
- The crisis of 1793
- Emergency measures: the implementation of 'terror'
- How to end 'terror', December 1793
- Interview with Dr Marisa Linton
- Interview with Professor Timothy Tackett
- Interview with Professor Ian Germani
- Interview with Charles Walton
5. Ending the Terror and Ending the Revolution
- Robespierre and 'virtue'
- The ideology and culture of the Terror
- The Jacobin and sans-culottes alliance
- Emergency measures or revolutionary violence?
- Thermidor Year II - 27 July 1794
- The 'settlement' of 1795: the end of the Revolution?
6. Change and continuity: How revolutionary was the Revolution?
- Napoleon Bonaparte and the Restoration
- The 'minimalist' approach to the signifance of the Revolution
- Who is a citizen? The experience of women
- Who is a citizen? The experience of slaves
- The international repercussions: a global crisis?
- The 'maximalist' approach: the turning-point of the modern world
