Index.htm

Use the links above to visit the course syllabus, bibliography with suggested term paper topics, image galleries to review our slide lectures in class, and copies of class handouts.

1614-1789: Absolute monarchy: "l'état, c'est moi"
1789-1792: Constitutional monarchy: "active" vs. "passive" citizens
1792-1799: First Republic: "Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!"
1799-1804: Consulate, with Napoleon as First Consul
1804-1814/15: First Empire: the empire of reason?
1814/15-1830: Bourbon Restoration, but with a Charter of Liberties
1830-1848: July Monarchy: "enrichissez-vous!"
1848-1851: Second Republic: "the Mountain" vs. the nephew
1851-1870: Second Empire: Napoleon le petit
1870-1940: Third Republic: republicanism becomes respectable
1940-1944: Vichy France vs. Free France
1944-1958: Fourth Republic
1958-xxxx: Fifth (and last?) Republic

François Furet opened his Scholar's Convocation in Herrick Chapel in 1989 by recalling that he had once entered a used bookstore in London and asked, "Do you have a copy of the French constitution?" The shopkeeper replied, "Sir, we do not carry periodicals."