This course investigates the French Revolution, an episode which many scholars see as the starting point for modernity. From the Bastille to the execution of Louis XVI, from the Vendée uprising to Thermidor, the events of the Revolution can shed light upon those of our own tumultuous era. And since the Revolution was a great real-life drama, one way to consider it is through the histories of great writers—Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter Scott, Hilaire Belloc, and Lord Acton.
As we contrast the very different perspectives these gifted narrators have of pivotal revolutionary events, we will meditate upon a variety of questions. Why did the Revolution happen? What forces and impulses led to violence? What was the Revolution’s relationship with religion? What should we make of the revolutionary slogan “Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood”? Was Napoleon inevitable?
Last but hardly least, we will look at the American connection, and then compare and contrast the French Revolution with its counterpart in the New World.
