History 177
Modern France: Nation, Empire, and Decolonization

Course Description:
This course will explore the history of modern France from the fall of the old regime in 1789 to the complex challenges of immigration and multi-culturalism in the late twentieth century. We will begin with the premise that something decidedly modern begins to emerge, with the inauguration of the French Revolution in 1789. We will trace the twists and turns of the modernization of France in social, political, economic and cultural spheres. For this nation rooted in powerful traditions the experience of modernity was filled with ambivalence and willful obstruction. We will examine the quest to construct a modern state, or prevent its rise; and the rise of a culturally vibrant, technologically ambivalent 19th century middle class whose creativity produced a network of modern railroads, pasteurized milk, department stores, and a revolution in painting known as Impressionism.
This middle class, eager to compete with its European and American rivals, also embarked on an ambitious project to colonize much of the world and its natural resources. We will track France's changing place in the world, from an imperial world power to a post-colonial power of declining global influence, with the rest of world increasingly (and to some disturbingly) present within its borders.
The course will travel the path of the historical development of modern France, encounter some of its most celebrated literary, artistic, and political personalities as well as many of its everyday citizens. We will explore some the most enduring obstacles to France achieving the principles of its own revolutionary platform, "liberty, equality, and fraternity."

Required Reading:
Jeremy Popkin, A History of Modern France
Emilie Carles, A Life of Her Own
Henry Russo, The Vichy Syndrome
Emile Zola, Ladies' Paradise
Marc Bloch, Strange Defeat
Tu Binh Tran, The Red Earth: A Vietnamese Memoir of Life on a Colonial Rubber Plantation
Karl Marx, Class Struggles in France
Mehdi Charef, Tea and the Harem
Packet of readings on e-reserve

Course requirements:
1) All reading assignments must be done before each class.
2) Weekly 2-3 page writing assignment on each week's assigned reading due on Thursday. I will not accept late papers. These response papers will be grade 1,2,3.
Class preparation, participation, and weekly writing assignments: 40 % of your grade.
3) Three essay assignments.
Late papers will be penalized at the rate of a full grade per day.
You may miss up to three classes without penalty. More than three absences will adversely affect your class participation grade, and more than seven absences will mean automatic failure of the course.

Class Schedule:
1/29 Introduction: The Old Regime and the coming of the French Revolution (Arthur Young, Sièyes.)
1/31 French Revolution: The Liberal Phase (source book, cahiers de doleances); Popkin, pp. 1-49.
2/5 French Revolution: The Radical Republic and Popular Politics (source book); Popkin, pp. 50-65.
2/7 Napoleon Bonaparte: Al-jabarti's Chronicle of the French Occupation, (on e-reserve), Popkin, pp. 66-77. Guest speaker: Magnus Bernhardsson.
2/12 The July Monarchy and Liberal France: St Simon; Mark Traugott, The French Worker: Autobiographies from the Early Industrial Era. Popkin, pp. 78 - 94.
2/14 Paris in the 1840s: realism/class social consciousness, Pere Goriot selections. Popkin, 95 - 106; begin Marx.
2/19 No Class
2/21 Revolution of 1848 and Utopianism: Marx - guest speaker Johan Ayr: Peddlers in Paris, Popkin, pp.107-115. Social and Cultural Modernity. PAPER DUE.
2/26 Politics and Poetics: The Transformation of Paris (Pinkney, Berman, Baudelaire), Popkin, pp 116-131.
2/28 Commerce and the City: Discuss Zola
3/5 The Birth of the Third Republic: Finish Zola, The Paris Commune (documents); Popkin, pp.132 - 139.
3/7 The Belle Epoque: Wax Museum (Schwarz), cabaret, Siegel, Weber/bicycle (panel discussion), Popkin, pp.140-164.
3/12 The Dark Side of the Fin de Siècle: The Dreyfus Affair, Popkin, 165-183. Zola, J'Accuse.
3/14 French Empire: Ferry; French Indo-China: Tran Tu Binh, The Red Earth: A Vietnamese memoir of Life on a Colonial Rubber Planation.
3/19 Total War, World War One and its Impact: documents; memory and monument Objects of Memory/Sherman, Popkin, 184-201.
3/21 The Modernity of Everyday Life in the 20s and 30s: Mary Louise Roberts Fashion, Popkin, pp.194-218. Elizabeth Ezra, "Colonialism Exposed"
Spring Break. PAPER DUE: Modernity Paper
4/2 The Collapse of the Republic: Marc Bloch: Strange Defeat, Popkin, p.219-229.
4/4 Vichy France: Robert Paxton, Ch. 2; Popkin, p.230-245.
4/9 Les Trentes glorieuses: Modernization in France 1945-1975, Ellen Furlough Packaging Pleasures: Club Mediterranée and French Consumer Culture in France, 1950-1986" Robert Frost, "Machine Liberation: Inventing Housewives and Home Appliances in Interwar France." Begin Emilie Carles , Popkin, 246-255.
4/11 A Peasant Woman Recounts the Twentieth Century: Emilie Carles
4/16 The Algerian War and Decolonization: Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Intro by Jean Paul Sartre, and Chapter on Terror); Popkin, 256-272.
4/18 Film: The Battle of Algiers / May 68 -- posters
4/23 Memory, History, and War: Vichy Syndrome (part I)
4/25 continued
4/30 The Radical Right and Immigration: Gaspard, Small City in France, selections Screen the film: Hate
5/2 Race and Immigration: Tea and the Harem, Guest Speaker, Michelle Hartman
5/7 A New Europe? Conclusions