Course Outline

Week 1: Peace

Tuesday, September 27
Course Introduction: War, Peace, and the New European Order
Read and discuss in class: The Peace of Westphalia (1648) (Excerpts) [Canvas]
Exercise: The Peace of Westphalia (1648)

Thursday, September 29 [No lecture today]

Week 2: European Political Culture
Textbook reading: Birn, Chapters 1 & 2

Tuesday, October 4:
Monarchy
Prepare in advance for discussion in class: The Coronation of Queen Anne, 1702 (Excerpts) [Canvas]
Exercise for Monday:

Thursday, October 6:
The Society of Orders
Prepare in advance for discussion in class: Ulrich Bräker (1735-1798), The Life Story and Real Adventures of the Poor Man of Toggenburg (Excerpts, Part I) [Canvas]

Week 3: The Age of Absolutism
Textbook reading: Birn, Chapters 3 & 4

Tuesday, October 11:
Absolutism and its Alternatives
Prepare for discussion in class: Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha (Excerpts) [Canvas]

Thursday, October 13:
Court Society and the European State System
Prepare in advance for discussion in class: Daily Life at the Court of the Sun King [Canvas]

Week 4: Europe and the World
Textbook reading: Birn, Chapter 5

Tuesday, October 18:
The First Globalization

Thursday, October 20: Midterm Examination

Week 5: Eighteenth-Century Society
Textbook reading: Birn, Chapter 7

Tuesday, October 25:
Aristocratic Culture

Thursday, October 27:
A ‘Public Sphere’ Takes Shape
Read for discussion in class: Ulrich Bräker (1735-1798), The Life Story and Real Adventures of the Poor Man of Toggenburg (Excerpts, Part II) [Canvas]

Week 6: Enlightenment
Textbook reading: Birn, Chapters 6 & 8

Tuesday, November 1:
Religion and Authority
Read for discussion in class: Voltaire, On Toleration (1763) (Excerpts)

Thursday, November 3:
Enlightenment

Week 7: Triumph and Crisis of the Ancien Régime
Textbook reading: Birn, Chapter 9 & 10

Tuesday, November 8:
The Era of Enlightened Reforms

Thursday, November 10:
Privilege and Protest in Old Regime Europe
First Paper Due

Week 8: From Reform to Revolution
Textbook reading: Censer & Hunt, Chapters 1-2

Tuesday, November 15:
The Collapse of the Old Regime in France
Read for discussion in class: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, “What is the Third Estate?” (1789) [Canvas]

Thursday, November 17:
From Constitutional Monarchy to Republic
Read for discussion in class: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (26 August 1789) in Censer & Hunt, 45-47, Louis-Marie Prudhomme, “On the Influence of the Revolution on Women” (1791), in Censer & Hunt, 79-81, and Marie Olympe de Gouges, The Rights of Woman (1791) [Canvas]

Week 9: The Republic of Virtue
Textbook reading: Censer & Hunt, Chapter 3

Tuesday, November 22:
The Transformation of Political Culture
Read for discussion in class: Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), Speech at the Trial of Louis XVI (31 December 1792) [Canvas]

Thursday, November 24: [Thanksgiving Holiday]

Week 10: From Thermidor to Brumaire
Textbook reading: Censer & Hunt, Chapter 4

Tuesday, November 29:
Exporting Revolution

Thursday, December 1:
Thermidor, Brumaire, and the Revolutionary Legacy
Second Paper Due

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