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The Open University

French Revolution

The Open University via OpenLearn

No Longer Offered

Overview

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This course examines the French Revolution from the Enlightenment and collapse of the Old Regime through the Terror, Thermidorian Settlement, and its consequences in Britain and Europe.

Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1 Enlightenment, liberty and revolution
  • 1 Enlightenment, liberty and revolution
  • 2 Death of the Old Regime
  • 2 Death of the Old Regime
  • 2.1 The bankrupt monarchy
  • 2.2 The Third Estate as the voice of the nation
  • 2.2.1 Sample analysis and discussion of ‘What is the Third Estate?’
  • 2.3 Fall of the Bastille, 14 July 1789
  • 2.4 Enlightened reformism – dismantling the Old Regime
  • 2.5 Declaration of the Rights of Man
  • 2.5.1 Imagery of the Declaration
  • 2.6 Enlightenment, revolution and reform – the departments
  • 3 From 1789 to the flight to Varennes
  • 3 From 1789 to the flight to Varennes
  • 3.1 The moderate reformers
  • 3.2 Popular violence and the Revolution
  • 3.3 The divide over the Church, 1790
  • 3.4 Monarchy and the Revolution – the flight to Varennes, 1791
  • 4 Europe and the French Revolution
  • 4 Europe and the French Revolution
  • 4.1 Intellectual, governmental and monarchical responses
  • 4.2 Political polarization and the fall of the monarchy
  • 4.3 Birth of the republic: war, civil war and terror
  • 4.4 The guillotine
  • 4.5 The sans-culotte as revolutionary hero
  • 4.6 The Terror in action
  • 5 Enlightenment, universalism and revolution
  • 5 Enlightenment, universalism and revolution
  • 5.1 Revolutionary calendar and metric system
  • 5.2 The cult of the Revolution
  • 5.3 The Marseillaise
  • 6 The Thermidorian Settlement and the end of the Revolution
  • 6 The Thermidorian Settlement and the end of the Revolution
  • 7 Conclusion
  • 7 Conclusion
  • 7.1 The Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Britain and Europe
  • 7.2 The main consequences of the Revolution
  • 7.3 The Great Nation
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

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