Nipissing University

HISTORY 4725 -- Age of the Enlightenment

Government by Consent:  Representation and Democracy in the Eighteenth Century

2000-1
Posted September 9, 2000


Instructor:  Dr. S. Muhlberger
Office:  P 605 (Portable across from A129)
Office Phone:  474-3461 ext 4458
Home Phone:  776-1247
E-mail: stevem@nipissingu.ca
 

What this course is about:

First let me tell you what this course is not about.  It is not a survey of the entire Enlightenment movement, and it is not an attempt to discuss the “age of the Enlightenment” (the late 18th century) as a whole.

Rather, the course will focus on one aspect of that movement and that era:  the ideas of government by consent and representation which arose in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and attempts to implement them during and after the American and French Revolutions.

During the course we will read extensively from several types of material: political treatises illustrating ideas of representation and consent, and opposition to government by consent; political documents such as constitutions and proclamations showing how such ideas were implemented, and to what purpose; and modern scholarship that describes events and the social and economic factors behind them.  What students learn from their reading will be the basis for classroom discussion and written assignments.

The geographical focus of the course will be British North America and France, though comparisons will occasionally be made to other countries, including Britain, Ireland, Sweden, and Geneva.

Required Books:

William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution.
Steven Muhlberger, ed., Government by Consent:  Representation and Democracy in the 18th Century.

NOTE:   Both books were used in this course in 1998-9.    If you took HIST 2155 (Early Modern Europe) last year, dig out your copy of Keith Michael Baker's book, U. of  Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, vol. 7: The Old Regime and the French Revolution.  It will be useful for two of our in-class discussions.

Suggested writing manuals—

Diana Hacker, A Canadian Pocket Style Manual
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History

The answer to the question "What kind of footnotes do you want" is "Look in the Rampolla book."
Grading:

The grading in this course will focus on your mastery of the source readings, your ability to discuss them in class, and your ability to write clearly and sensibly on the subject matter of the course.   If you approve, the grading scheme will be as follows:

1.  Class participation--worth 30%
In the first term and the first half of the second, you will be reading and discussing the assigned primary and secondary materials.  Students are expected to read all assigned materials and to be prepared to speak about them intelligently in class.  Participation in the discussion of other students’ research presentations (see 4 below) is also expected.
I will set up an web forum on the Nipissing University computer system.   Discussion on this forum will be entirely optional, but participation in it will count towards your participation grade.   You also have the option of writing short position papers or reflections on the readings of a given week and the issues it brings up.   (I will only accept such writings at class time during the appropriate week.)
Half of your participation grade will be for work in the first term, and half for work in the second.
2.  Take-home midterm examination--worth 20% (first week of December )
The form, worth, and due date are negotiable.
3.  Research paper--worth 35%
The research paper should be between 20 and 30 pages.  Topics to be assigned in October.  An initial draft will be submitted in January, and returned with comments for revision.  The final version will be submitted in March.
4.  Seminar presentation of research topic--worth 15%
These will be presented during the second half of the second term.

 Course Outline

D= Doyle, Oxford History of the French Revolution; GBC = Government by Consent;  P = Palmer, Age of the Democratic Revolution, vol. 1.   The Palmer book is on reserve in the library.  Readings from Palmer (P) are optional except for the Sept. 28 reading.

The GBC  readings are always the most important readings for the following discussion.  Read them first, and carefully.

Sept 13     Introduction
Sept 20     The Absolutist Ideal and the Society of Orders
                      GBC, ch. 1
Sept 27     Liberty and Representation
                      P, ch. 2; GBC, ch. 2
Oct. 4       Anti-absolutist Theory
                      GBC, ch. 3
Oct.  11    Calls for Reform
                      GBC, ch. 4; P, 3; D, ch 2-3.
Oct. 18     Rousseau
                      GBC, ch. 5; P, ch. 5
Oct. 25     Outbreak of the American Revolution
                      GBC, ch. 6; P, ch. 7
Nov. 1      Americans Protest the Revolution
                      GBC, ch. 7
Nov. 8      The Philadelphia Convention
                      GBC, ch. 8; P, ch. 8
Nov. 15     The Debate on the Constitution
                      GBC, ch. 9
Nov. 22     Background to the French Revolution
                      D, ch. 3, 4, 5; P, ch. 14
Nov. 29     The Fall of the Old Regime
                      GBC, ch. 10; D, ch. 3-4; P, ch. 15
———
Jan. 10        The Rights of Man?
                      GBC, ch. 11, D, pp. 166-173
Jan. 17        An Attempt at Constitutional Monarchy
                      GBC, ch. 12; D, ch. 5-6
Jan. 24        Background to the First French Republic
                      D, ch. 6, 8, 11
Jan. 31        Breakdown of the Monarchy
                      GBC, ch. 13; D, ch. 6-8
Feb. 7         The Revolutionary Republic
                      GBC, ch. 14; D, ch. 9-11
Feb. 14       After the Terror
                     GBC, ch. 13; D, ch. 12-14
Feb.18         Study week
Feb. 28        Students begin presenting their papers
 
 

Possible Paper Topics

Thinkers and Actors

Napoleon Bonaparte as a revolutionary leader
Edmund Burke
Was Jefferson a democrat?
The Marquis de Lafayette as a revolutionary leader
Joseph de Maistre
Thomas Paine
Maxmillien Robespierre
Why was Rousseau so popular?
Mme de Stael and Benjamin Constant
Turgot as thinker and actor
Mary Woolstonecraft

Ideas

Ancient republics as an inspiration for revolutionaries
Native American peoples as an inspiration for revolutionaries
Revolution:  18th century meanings for the term
Slavery
Natural rights
What is a Nation?

France

“Aristocratic resurgence” in France before the Revolution
The French revolution in the countryside:   Causes and results
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Women in revolutionary Paris
The Vendée:  The peasantry against the revolution
The Trial of King Louis XVI
Sanscullotism
The Jacobin movement
The Constitutions of the 1790s

North America

The Revolution in Pennsylvania
Writing the constitution of Massachusettes
The Disestablishment of religion in the early USA
Antifederalism in the U.S.
The Development of the American Presidency under George Washington
The Whiskey Rebellion
The Alien and Sedition Acts
Vermont -- Ideals and dynamics of the revolution
Canada in the 1790s -- Constitutional issues and representative government
The Development of political parties in the early United States (1790s and  1800s)
 

Other Countries

Sweden -- Constitutional monarchy and reform
The Wilkes affair
Revolutionary sentiment  in England
The Dutch revolution