Making Modern France History 01:510:335 Fall 2007 Naomi Davidson MW 7:40-9:00 PM, Murray 111 Office Hours: Center for Historical Analysis (88 College Avenue), Office 203 Wednesdays 10am-12pm Email and Phone: naomibd@rci.rutgers.edu, 732-932-8715 Description: This course will examine the construction of modern France in its metropolitan and colonial contexts, from the defeat of Napoleon until the present. Our investigation of the major political, social, cultural and economic developments of the 19 th and 20 th centuries will center on questions of inclusion and exclusion in the French nation and republic. This course s chronology will highlight the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the advent of the Third Republic, the Separation of Church and State of 1905, the First and Second World Wars, the wars of decolonization, among other events. The themes we will examine include the homogenization of the French nation; the place of women in the republic; the question of citizenship for colonial subjects; spaces for members of religious minorities in secular France; and the role of migration (both internal and international) in creating modern France. All of these historical moments and themes will be explored using a very wide angle to incorporate both metropolitan and overseas territories. We will rely on a mixture of secondary historiographical materials and primary sources (both textual and visual). Requirements: Course requirements include attendance and active participation in lectures and discussions and completing all assigned reading and all written assignments (active participation will count for 20% of your final grade). The written assignments for this class are as follows: -In-class mid-term exam (30%) -Final paper proposal (3 pages) (10%) -Final paper (15 pages) (40%) In order to participate in class meetings, readings must be completed before the appropriate session. Active participation means listening respectfully to your colleagues and offering your own contributions to discussion. Because your grade depends in part on your presence in classroom exchanges, repeated absences will result in a lower final grade. Please consult the following website for Rutgers policy on academic honesty: http://history.rutgers.edu/undergrad/plagiarism.htm
2 Texts: The following texts are available for purchase at the Rutgers University Bookstore, and have also been placed on reserve at Alexander Library. The bulk of the reading for this course consists of book chapters and articles. Jeremy Popkin, A History of Modern France Emile Zola, Germinal Irène Nemirovsky, Suite française Mehdi Charef, Tea in the Harem Schedule: Week 1: September 5 W: Introduction to the Course; Napoleon s Fall Readings: Popkin, chapters 10-11 Week 2: September 10, 12 M: 1830: Conquest and Revolution Reading: Popkin, chapter 12 W: 1848: Revolution and Republic Readings: Joan Wallach Scott, The Duties of the Citizen: Jeanne Deroin in the Revolution of 1848 in Only Paradoxes to Offer; William Sewell, Work and Revolution in France, chapter 11. Week 3: September 17, 19 M: 1870: The Paris Commune Readings: Popkin, Chapter 17; Roger Gould, Insurgent Identities, chapter 6. W: The Advent of the Third Republic Readings: Joan Wallach Scott, The Rights of the Social : Hubertine Auclert and the Politics of the Third Republic ; David Prochaska, Making Algeria French, chapter 7. Week 4: September 24, 26 M: Industrialization and Working Class Responses Readings: Emile Zola, Germinal W: Center and Periphery, Urban and Rural Readings: Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, chapters 6, 7, 12, 17, 18, 29.
3 Week 5: October 1, 3 M: The Third Republic s Missions: Secularization Readings: Caroline Ford, Creating the Nation in Provincial France, chapters 3, 4, 6. W: La Mission civilisatrice Readings: Alice Conklin, A Mission to Civilize, chapters 2, 3. Week 6: October 8, 10 M: The First World War: Race and Nationality Readings: Tyler Stovall, Color-Blind France? Colonial Workers during the First World War, Race and Class 35:2 (1993): 41-55. W: The First World War: Class and Gender, Natalism Readings: Mary Louise Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, Introduction and chapters 2, 5. Week 7: October 15, 17 M: The Interwar Years: From Assimilation to Association, New Colonial Methods Readings: Gwendolyn Wright, The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism (chapters 3-5); Conklin (chapter 6) W: The Interwar Years: Immigration, European and Mediterranean Readings: Gérard Noiriel, The French Melting Pot (chapter 2) Week 8: October 22, 24 M: MID-TERM EXAM W: World War II: The Vichy Regime and France s Colonial Armies Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française Week 9: October 29, 31 M: The Vichy Syndrome: Remembering and Re-writing Collaboration FILM: A Self-Made Hero. W: Postwar Reconstruction Reading: Popkin, chapter 29.
4 Week 10: November 5, 7 M: Anti-colonial and nationalist movements Readings: Preface, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Chapter 1 Concerning Violence in Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. W: The Wars of Decolonization and the Remaking of France Reading: Mouloud Feraoun, Journal, 1955-1962. Week 11: November 12, 14 M: The Fifth Republic and De Gaulle s Return to Power Readings: Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies, chapters 1-2; Popkin chapter 31. W: May 68: Workers and Students, Cultural Revolutions? Reading: Kristin Ross, May 1968 and its Afterlives, chapter 1. Week 12: November 19, 21 (*FINAL PAPER PROPOSALS DUE WEDNESDAY!*) M: New Immigration Policies and Politics Reading: Noiriel, chapter 6. W: Integration, Assimilation? Cultural and Religious Minorities in 1980s France Reading: Mehdi Charef, Tea in the Harem. Week 13: November 26, 28 M: Mitterrand and the Socialists Return to Power Reading: Popkin, chapter 33. W: France and its Former Colonies Reading: Gregory Mann, Immigrants and Arguments in France and West Africa, Comparative Studies in Society and History 45:2 (2003): 362-385. Week 14: December 3, 5 M: France in the 21 st Century: European, Mediterranean, African Reading: Alec Hargreaves, Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary France, chapter 2. W: France s New Religious Landscape Readings: John Bowen, Why the French Don t Like Headscarves, Parts I and III. Week 15: December 10, 12 M: Ghettos, Old and New
5 Reading: Paul Silverstein, Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race and Nation, chapter 3. W: FILM: L esquive and final discussion.