History Seminar 506:401:B6 The Age of Revolutions, Summer 2012 Rutgers University

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1 History Seminar 506:401:B6 The Age of Revolutions, Summer 2012 Rutgers University Professor Jennifer Jones Meeting time: Tuesday, Thursday 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., Van Dyck 301 Office hours: Tuesday, 2 to 4 p.m. Van Dyck 111 During the late 18 th and early 19 th century great upheavals shook the Western world as Revolutions broke out in North America, France, and the Spanish Americas. A new political culture of participatory democracy and republicanism swept aside the entrenched social order and status quo of the Old Regime. Imperial powers such as England, France and Spain were deprived of prized colonial possessions. New independent states such as the United States and Haiti were born in the late 18 th century; by the 1820s, new states were born in Mexico and throughout South America. In 1815 John Adams made sense of the more than quarter center of political and social change with is summation: The last twenty-five years of the last century, and the first fifteen years of this, may be called the age of revolutions and constitutions. (The Works of John Adams, (Boston, ), X, 149). Although historians often conceptualize the Age of Revolutions as a broad period from 1750 to 1848, in this course we will focus on just three revolutions: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution. We will explore the causes of these revolutions, the role of ideas and ideologies in the spread of revolution, and the outcomes of these revolutions by the end of this period in1815. We will be attentive to the insights that comparative and global historical approaches can offer the historian of revolution and will explore the ways in which setting all three of these revolutions in the context of the broad Atlantic world will enrich historians understandings of these revolutions. In the course of six weeks students will not only learn about three major revolutions, tbut will also hone their skills as research historians. We will explore a variety of primary sources from eyewitness accounts such as diaries and letters to print media such as political treatises and newspaper articles. By the end of the course, all students will produce an 18- to 25-page research paper based on primary source materials. Students may write on any of the three revolutions we explore in class. They may wish to adopt an explicitly comparative or global perspective on the revolution they study, but this is not required.

2 Because of the nature of summer session, readings will necessarily be heavy in the first four weeks of class: students are expected to read approximately 100 pages from books, articles, and primary sources for each class during the first four weeks of class. In the last two weeks of class there will be no assigned readings so that students can devote themselves to researching and writing their final papers. The final course grade will be based on: Class participation in discussions (15%) Short analysis and presentation based on secondary and primary sources (2% each, 10% total) Research proposal (10%) Rough draft (20%) Oral presentation (5%) Final 18 to 25-page research paper (40%). Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. I will deduct 5 points from your grade for each class that you miss. All students are expected to schedule two individual meeting with the professor to discuss their research projects; one of these meetings will be during our regular class period. Note that we will not meet as a class on June 14, June 21, and July 3 rd. These are open day so that students can work on their final drafts. I will be available for individual conferences from 6 to 8 p.m. on those days. This course meets SAS Core Goals S, T, T and Vfor Writing and Communication. This course also meets the seminar requirement for the History major and is open to all junior and senior History majors and joint History-Political Science and joint French-History majors. Other students may join the course with the professor s permission. Enrollment is limited to fifteen students. Books (optional) Readings will be drawn primarily from these books; all readings will be available on Sakai. David Armitage and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds.) The Age of Revolution in Global Context (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) ISBN10: Wim Klooster, Revolutions in the Atlantic World a Comparative History (New University Press, 2009) ISBN10: Jeremy Popkin, Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection (University of Chicago, 2007) ISBN10: Other readings available on Sakai

3 Weekly Schedule Week One Tuesday, May 29 Introduction to the project of the research seminar, ways of studying revolutions, and revolutions in the context of the Atlantic World; introduction to primary and secondary sources Thursday, May 31 Revolutionary cross-fertilization in the Atlantic World * First short analysis due in class * Reading: Gary B. Nash, Sparks from the Altar of 76: International Repercussions and Reconsiderations of the American Revolution, in David Armitage (ed.) The Age of Revolution in Global Context. (Sakai) Lynn Hunt, The French Revolution in Global Context, in Armitage (ed.) The Age of Revolution in Global Context. (Sakai) *Rachel Hope Cleves, Jacobins in this Country : The United States, Great Britain, and Trans-Atlantic Anti-Jacobinism, Early American Studies, vol. 8, number 2, Spring 2010, *Philipp Ziesche, Exporting American Revolutions: Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Jefferson, and the National Struggle for Universal Rights in Revolutionary France, Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 26, number 3, Fall 2006, Week Two Tuesday, June 5 The America Revolution: the force of ideas? social tensions? Micro and macro histories ** Second and third short analyses due in class** Wim Klooster, Revolutions in the Atlantic World, chapter 2, Civil War in the British Empire: The American Revolution. (Sakai) *Gordon Wood, Rhetoric and Reality in the American Revolution. (1966) (JSTOR) *Sophia Rosenfeld, Common Sense: A Political History, chapter 4, Building a Common Sense Republic. (Sakai) *Staughton Lynd, Who Should Rule at Home? Dutchess County, New York, in the American Revolution, The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series,

4 Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1961), pp [Read on JSTOR] Thursday, June 7 French Revolution: violence and myth making *** Fourth short analysis due in class*** Wim Klooster, Revolutions in the Atlantic World, chapter 3, The War on Privilege and Dissention: The French Revolution. (Sakai) *Nina Gelbart, The Blonding of Charlotte Corday. Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 38, number 1(Fall 2004), (Sakai) *Antoine de Baecque, Glory and Terror: Seven Deaths Under the French Revolution (2003), chapter 3, The Princesse de Lamballe. (Sakai) Week Three Tuesday, June 12 The Haitian Revolution: eyewitness accounts *** Research proposals due in class *** Wim Klooster, From Prize Colony to Black Independence: The Revolution in Haiti, in Revolutions in the Atlantic World. (Sakai) Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World : The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004 ) (selections on Sakai) Jeremy Popkin, Facing Racial Revolution (2007) selections on Sakai Thursday, June 14 No class: individual conferences about research proposals Week Four Tuesday, June 19 Representing crowds, interpreting violence, explaining turning points ***** Fifth short analysis due ***** *Jesse Lemisch Radical Plot in Boston (1770): A Study in the Use of Evidence, Harvard Law Review, 84 ( ), (Sakai). Paul Revere s engraving of the Boston Massacre (image link on Sakai)

5 *Timothy Tackett, Conspiracy Obsession in a Time of Revolution: French Elites and the Origins of the Terror, , The American Historical Review, vol No. 3 (June 2000), Francois Furet, Terror, in Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf, eds., A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution (Harvard University Press, 1989), (Sakai) Thursday, June 21 No class: individual, scheduled conferences Reading: no assigned reading Week Five Tuesday, June 26 Workshop: how to revise a draft Rough drafts due by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, June 25th Reading: two rough drafts, as assigned Thursday, June 28 Open day film or topic to be announced Week Six Tuesday, July 3 No class: work on final drafts Reading: no assigned reading Thursday, July 5 Final presentations Final papers due in class