FRANCE FROM NAPOLEON TO THE GREAT WAR, 1799-1914

FRENCH 348

An introduction to political, social, intellectual, artistic and literary developments in French and Francophone culture, within the time period from the French Revolution to the current era. Taught in French.

HISTORY 358

Explores the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon. Why did Revolution break out in one of the most powerful and traditional monarchies of Europe? What were the roots of discontent and the sources of revolutionary ideas? Probes the exciting twists and turns of revolutionary politics and the attempt to spread "liberty equality" into ordinary life, even abolishing slavery in response to massive slave revolt in the French colonies. Asks how the French interacted with a transnational revolutionary movement across Europe, the US, and the Atlantic world. Though focused on a specific revolutionary era, we will also reflect on timeless questions: Why is it so difficult to create democracy? Is violence ever justified to overcome oppression and injustice? Finally, why did this experiment in radical democracy also unleash the Terror and launch Napoleon Bonaparte, the politician and general who built an astonishing European Empire? And how did he pull it off for as long as he did?

HISTORY 868

Social, political, and cultural history of France, 1800 to the present.

FRENCH 347

An introduction to the political, social, intellectual, artistic and literary development of French culture, from its origins to the French Revolution (1789). Taught in French.

HISTORY 349

Social, political, and cultural history of twentieth century France, especially the Great War, the Popular Front, the Vichy Regime, DeGaulle and the Fifth Republic, Mitterrand's socialist experiment, France's changing role in the world and the European Community.