Voltaire vs. Rousseau on the French Revolution:

Directions:

For your next project, you will work in groups to prepare a presentation for class on the French Revolution. Do a good job because you have an essay due on this topic next Thursday!

Essay Topic: How, if they had lived, would Voltaire and Rousseau have debated the political philosophies justifying the three different stages of the French Revolution? How would they have responded to the thinkers worldwide who applauded or denounced the revolution?

Resources on Voltaire and Rousseau:

To research your presentation, you will be reading both primary and secondary sources.

A. To begin, skim this overview of the French Revolution:

Outline of the French Revolution (Powerpoint)
The French Revolution
, Richard Hooker (2ndary) Study Guide

B. Next you should read the overview of your group's topic, another secondary source.

Group One: The Liberal Revolution:

The Liberal Revolution (2ndary) Study Guide
The French Revolution: The Moderate Stage, 1789-1792 (2ndary)

Group Two: The Radical Revolution:

The Radical Revolution (2ndary) Study Guide
The French Revolution: The Radical Stage, 1792-1794 (2ndary)

Group Three: Napoleon and the Napoleonic Code:

The Thermidorean Reaction, the Directory, and Napoleon (2ndary) Study Guide
Overview: Europe and the Superior Being: Napoleon (2ndary)

Group Four: Reactions to the French Revolution:

The Language of Politics: England and the French Revolution (2ndary)

C. Then you and your group members should divide up responsibilities for reading the various primary sources. Read your document and summarize the main point that is being made by the writer. Find good quotes to support your interpretation.

D. Next, decide what Voltaire and Rousseau would have thought of your writer's idea.

E. Finally, get together with your partners and decide what Voltaire and Rousseau would have said about your general topic. Present your conclusions to the class in a PowerPoint presentation..

F. Be careful to document your sources and to use proper MLA format in preparing your presentation.

 

Group One: The Liberal Revolution:

Overview:

The Crisis of the Monarchy (Hooker) (2ndary) Study Guide
The Liberal Revolution (Hooker)(2ndary) Study Guide
The Origins of the French Revolution (2ndary) Kreis
The French Revolution: The Moderate Stage, 1789-1792 (2ndary) Kreis

Outline of the French Revolution (Powerpoint)

  • The Estates General
  • The National Assembly
  • The Capture of the Bastille
  • The Great Fear
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man
  • The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
  • The Constitution of 1791

Documents:

Observing the French Peasantry on the Eve of Revolution  
Louis XV Asserts His Absolute Authority over Parlement (1765) 
Members of the Lower Class Voice their Grievances (1788)

Abbé Sieyes: What is the Third Estate? (1789) (Primary) 
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) excerpt. (Primary)
Declaration of the Rights of Man, (Primary) 
Decree Abolishing Feudalism (1789) (Primary)
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1791) (Primary)
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1791) (Primary)

Group Two: The Radical Revolution:

Overview:

The Radical Revolution (Hooker) (2ndary) Study Guide
Outline of the French Revolution (Powerpoint)

  • The Declaration of Pillnitz
  • Counter Revolution
  • The Girondists
  • The Montagnard
  • The Sans-culottes
  • The Reign of Terror
  • The Levee en Masse

The French Revolution: The Radical Stage, 1792-1794 (2ndary) Kreis
Chartier, Roger. The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution.(excerpt) (2ndary) 

Documents:

The Marseillaise and Midi File or All Seven Verses in French (Primary)
The Leveé en Masse, August 23, 1793 (Primary) 

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): The Death of Marie Antoinette (Primary)

Condorcet, The Future Progress of the Human Mind (1795) (Primary)

Maximilian Robespierre (1758-94): Terror and Virtue (excerpts); Report on the Principles of Political Morality (1794) (Primary) RG Reading Guide 
Maximilian Robespierre (1758-94): On the Festival of the Supreme Being, 1794 (Primary) 

Early Socialism: from The Doctrine of Gracchus Babeuf 1795 (UVA) (Primary)

Group Three: Napoleon and the Napoleonic Code
 

Overview: 

Napoleon
(Hooker)(2ndary) Study Guide
Outline of the French Revolution (Powerpoint)
Europe and the Superior Being: Napoleon (2ndary) Kreis

  • The Thermidorean Reaction
  • Napoleon Bonaparte’s Rise to Power
  • The Consulate (1799-1804)
  • The Napoleonic Code
  • The Empire
  • The Hundred Days

Documents:

The French Revolt and Empire: 1792-1815 (Secondary)

Napoleon, Speech to Troops (1796); "The 18th Brumaire of the Year VIII" (1799); Account of the Situation of the Empire (1804); from the Code Napoleon (1804); The Berlin Decree (1806); Imperial Catechism (1806); Farewell to the Old Guard (1814); The Return of Napoleon from Elba (1815)

Napoleon’s Conquests (Map)

O'Malley: Wellington's Crossing of the Douro, 1809
Tolstoy, Count Leo Nikolayevich. War and Peace. Excerpt (Primary) 

Group Four: Reactions to the French Revolution

Overview:

Europe in 1815: The Congress of Vienna; The Congress of Vienna and the Rise of German Nationalism (ppt) (Map)
The Congress of Vienna (Hooker) 
The Language of Politics: England and the French Revolution (2ndary) 
Outline of the French Revolution (Powerpoint)

  • Revolutionary Movements Worldwide
  • The Congress of Vienna
  • Edmund Burke and Conservatism
  • Johan Fichte and German Nationalism

Documents: 

Vincent Oge, the Younger, A Haitian Mulatto Claims Civil and Political Rights (Primary) 
Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution (2ndary)
The Revolution on Santo Domingo (2ndary)
Irish Song Supporting Ideals of the French Revolution (Primary) 
Olympe de Gouges. Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen (Citoyenne), 1791, excerpt (Primary)
Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) (commentary) (2ndary)

Europe in 1815: Reassertion of Conservatism at The Congress of Vienna; The Congress of Vienna and the Rise of German Nationalism (ppt) The Congress of Vienna (Hooker) 

Carlyle's Letters on the French Revolution Part of the Carlyle Letters Online assembled by Duke University Press.  (1812-1857; database of searchable transcriptions)

Edmund Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France, excerpt, 1791 (Primary)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1791, short excerpts (Primary)
Edmund Burke more short excerpts from Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1791
Edmund Burke (1729-97) Biography (Primary)
On Burke: "Reactionary Prophet" Christopher Hitchens Atlantic Monthly April 2004

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Thirteenth Address to the German Nation  except (Primary)
Thomas Paine (1737-1809): Rights on Man 1792 (commentary) (2ndary)