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An Introduction to the French Revolution

5 weekly sessions online, on Fridays at 3 - 5pm, starting from Friday 9 October.

Overview

This course comprises a weekly 1 hour live online meeting (via MS Teams) and online learning materials for you to engage with before and after each live session.

What was the French Revolution? Why did it occur and when did it end? What is its significance? Who was impacted by the French Revolution? Beginning with its origins and working through the reforms and conflict of 1789-1792, the Terror of 1793 to 1794, the fallout from the Terror between 1795 and 1799 during the Thermidorian reaction and the Directory, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the legacies of the French Revolution, this course will offer an introduction to one of the most defining events of the long nineteenth-century. Participants will have the opportunity to examine revolutionary legislation, debate the origins of the French Revolution, and consider the wider implications of the French Revolution for modern society and for those living during this tumultuous period. This course is for anyone interested in human rights, French history, and gender and political history. All materials consulted will be English translations, so no knowledge of French is required.

Syllabus

  • Week 1: Origins and 1789 - breaking with the past
  • Week 2: 1790-1792 - reform and conflict
  • Week 3: 1793-1794 - The Terror
  • Week 4: Ending the Terror, 1794-1799
  • Week 5: Napoleon and the Legacies of the French Revolution

Course lecturer

Sam Dobbie is a PhD History graduate from the University of Glasgow, where she also obtained her MA History and MLitt Modern History degrees. She specialises in the French Revolution, with particular emphasis on the role of women in revolutionary society. Her PhD thesis is entitled ‘Women’s Political Agency in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1793’. Other research interests include France in the long nineteenth-century and revolution as a process. She has most recently been a tutor at the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University on a range of undergraduate and honours courses including France, 1789-1914: Revolution, Nation and Empire, Becoming an Historian, and the Rise of Western Societies, 1789-1914. She also offers courses to adult learners on the Lifelong Learning Dundee programme. Some of her publications include ‘The Complex Nature of Memory in Personal Testimonies from the French Revolution: The Example of Fournier l’Américain’, Esharp 31 (2024), and ‘High Profile Marriages in Revolutionary Paris: The Condorcets’, Epoch 5 (2021).

Course fee

  • Standard fee: £85
  • Concession fee: £45