In this course we will use primary sources – texts, but also visual primary sources such as fine art and the built environment – to yield answers to new questions about the Revolution of 1789. The event that began in France in 1789 eventually transformed Europe from Madrid to Moscow, but also shook the Caribbean, Latin America, and North Africa. The Revolution’s reach was more than geographic as it generated cultural, social and economic changes, too. We will draw upon recent scholarship as well as primary sources to explore together such themes as the invention of public opinion; abolition and the slave trade; the Revolution and religion; Terror and terrorism; the aftermath of the Revolution in militant politics from the Paris Commune to the Bolshevik Revolution; the status of women within a fraternal revolution; the “gay” revolution of 1789; the Revolution and the city of Paris; the Revolution in film; and the status of the Revolution today.
HSTEU388a "The French Revolution and its Afterlives" will be offered in person.