Maximilien de Robespierre
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Sept. 5: Hunt, 1-12, 35-70
Use Questions 1-4, found on Hunt, 142.
In addition:
1. In the pre-Revolution, who had rights? Why didn't more people have rights? How was limiting rights to only some people justified?
2. Why is the argument in What is the Third Estate? such a departure from previous arguments? |
Jean-Baptiste Belley
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Sept. 10: Hunt, 13-31, 71-101, 119-39
Use Questions 6-8, found on Hunt, 142.
In addition:
1. What are the major provisions of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (DRMC)? What does it mean to be a "citizen"? Who is excluded from the citizenship? Why?
2. Are the revolutionary men hypocrites? How do they justify exclusions?
3. What is Olympe de Gouges trying to do in the Declaration of the Rights of Women? What do you think about that document? |
Sept. 12: Hunt, 101-18
Use Questions 9-13, found on Hunt, 143
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Elizabeth Gaskell, author of Mary Barton
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Sept. 19: Mary Barton, au. pref. & chaps. 1-14
What is domestic life like for the working class?
How does Mrs. Gaskell feel about the way her working class characters behave?
How does she feel about the way her factory owners behave?
How do you think a factory worker and a factory owner would have felt about the way they were depicted in this book?
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Sept. 24: Mary Barton, chaps. 15-38
[click here for summary of chaps. 19-34]
How does Mrs. Gaskell feel about unions and strikes?
In her view, are the workers' actions justified?
What does she believe is the solution to the misfortunes caused by industrialization?
How do you think workers and owners would have reacted to her solution?
How can historians use fiction (novels) as historical sources?
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Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein
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Sept. 29/Oct. 1: Frankenstein
For Monday:
Horror stories were essentially a new genre, developed by the Romantics. (Frankenstein is one of the earliest.) Why is the horror story or ghost story a type that would appeal to the Romantic ethos?
Is Victor Frankenstein a Romantic hero? What evidence could you use to argue both for and against that?
What roles do emotion, sensation, and imagination play in this part of the book?
How does Shelley present Nature?
For Wednesday:
Is the Creature a Romantic hero?
How is the Creature educated? Does that fit in with Romantic views?
Does Shelley approve of the Creature's decision to seek revenge?
In what ways is this an excellent example of Romantic values in novel form?
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Marx's tomb in London's Highgate Cemetery
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Oct. 10: The German Ideology and The Manifesto of the Communist Party (excerpts)
Marx proposes a new way of thinking about human history. What is it? How is it different from "history" as understood by non-Marxists during his time?
What, for Marx, is the purpose of studying history? Does history have a meaning and a direction? Can human beings change or effect history?
How does Marx understand the primary class conflict of his own time? Who are the opponents? What is happening and what does he predict will happen in their struggle?
How do Marx's views and values compare to those of the Romantics?
What do the Communists stand for? What are their goals? Who do they represent?
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J.S. Mill: a caricature from 1873
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Oct. 13: On Liberty
What does JSM mean by "liberty"?
What are the limits of liberty? In particular, when can government intervene to limit or constrain liberty?
Does JSM believe that liberty should be an end in itself? Can liberty be dangerous?
Why does JSM prefer having people do things for themselves (self-help) even if they do so less efficiently and effectively than government would?
How would you assess Mill's vision of liberty and of human nature?
What are the differences in approach between Mill's classical liberalism and 21st century liberalism in the USA? What do they have in common?
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Samuel Smiles, au. of Self-Help
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October 17: excerpts from Self-Help (1859)
What qualities does Smiles most admire in a person? What makes a person a 'hero' to Smiles? How does his idea of a hero differ from that of the Romantics?
In what ways is Self-Help written from a middle-class Liberal perspective? How might its account of these men be different if it were written by a Marxist or by a Conservative?
What does the phenomenal success of this book suggest about the nature of mid-19th century society and its values?
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Edvard Munch, Vampire (1893)
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Nov. 5: Island of Dr Moreau
Read the novel as a metaphor.
Who do the characters (human and non-human) represent?
What does the story reveal about the mood of society at the end of the 19th century?
What are European society's anxieties? |
Ernst Junger as a soldier
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Nov. 10: Storm of Steel, pp. 5-50, 67-110, 121-40
At the start of the war, how did the German population -- especially the soldiers -- feel about it? How and why did that change for the soldiers?
What was life in the trenches like? What elements of warfare appear to have been new in World War I?
What effect did the Battle of the Somme have on Junger and other soldiers? How did it change them and the war?
What would you identify as a passage that contains a particularly vivid image of the war -- especially one that helped you to see the war from the soldier's perspective really well?
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Detail from Otto Dix's War Triptych
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Nov. 14: Storm of Steel, pp. 180-289
How do the soldiers see the officers? In what ways do the officers' perspectives on the war differ from those of the soldiers?
What changes take place in the soldiers in these last phases of the war?
How did Junger survive the war? How much control did he have over what happened to him?
This is generally considered "one of the great books of World War I, if not the greatest". Why do you think that is the case? Do you consider it an effective book for studying the war?
Junger revised this book several times. This version was published in 1934, shortly after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Does Junger have an obvious bias in this version of the book? Does he appear to have a political agenda?
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Fashion designer Coco Chanel
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Nov. 19: Civilization Without Sexes, 19-32, 37-45, 63-87, 93-119
Chap. 1: What conflicting images of French women developed during World War I? How accurate were the widely circulated ideas about what women were doing during the war? Why did women's behavior during the war provoke so much anxiety?
Chap. 3: How did French women's fashions change in the early 1920s? In what ways were these changes controversial? What did they symbolize to observers? What anxieties did they provoke? How well-founded were these anxieties? Did fashion changes reflect real changes for women?
Chap. 4: What was behind the passage of the law against abortion and contraception propaganda? What were the characteristics of the "natalist discourse"? How accurate was its presentation of the problems and solutions? What was the relationship of World War I to the concern about depopulation?
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Nov. 24: Civilization Without Sexes, 120-43, 153-70, 183-211
Chap. 5: What is the connection between the sacrifice of the soldiers and the duty of women to be mothers? How did men see the preference of women not to have children? How did women see it?
Chap. 6: How did the post-war period change the image of the "old maid"? What were the issues behind the surtax bill? What does it reveal about the role of single women? How did post-war society rethink single motherhood?
Chap. 7: How do both the vocational guidance and sexual education movements show the effects of World War I on women? What contradictions and tensions do both have to deal with?
Roberts's subtitle uses the term "reconstructing gender". In what ways was gender reconstructed after the war? Why not just set the clock back to the way things were before the war?
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Winston Churchill, 1941
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Dec. 3: Five Days in London, chaps. 1-3
How is Lukacs challenging the standard view of this period? What sources does he use in the first chapter? What possible problems of credibility do these sources raise?
What is Hitler's perspective in May 1940? How is it shaped? How accurate is his understanding of political realities in Britain? What is the USA's position? How is it shaped? Is it more accurate than Hitler's?
What are the big open questions and uncertainties on May 24?
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Evacuation of Dunkirk, 1940
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Dec. 5: Five Days in London, chaps. 4-7
In the War Cabinet meetings, what are the arguments for and against reaching out to Mussolini? What do the ministers know? What do they fear?
Consider the disagreements between Churchill and Halifax, especially on May 27. What happens if we examine their views without hindsight? With hindsight, we know that Churchill was right, but was he just lucky?
Lukacs believes that Churchill single-handedly saved Western Civilization. Do you agree? Were these 5 days really the "hinge of fate" as he argues?
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