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Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution

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Reviewed:: Jan 22, 2009 by History

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Overview:: According to the site itself, "LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY: EXPLORING THE FRENCH REVOUTION provides an accessible and lively introduction to the French Revolution as well as an extraordinary archive of some of the most important documentary evidence from the Revolution, including 338 texts, 245 images, and a number of maps and songs. Lynn Hunt of UCLA and Jack Censer of George Mason Universityboth internationally renowned scholars of the Revolutionserved as principal authors and editors." Although not specifically stated, the learning goals appear to be to enhance understanding of the French Revolution and to help students recognize the difference between primary and secondary sources. The site is most appropriate for college-level students. The site is subdivided into three main headings or "navigational paths." Under EXPLORE students and teachers can find "an introduction to the main themes of the Revolution." In this area, there are "ten essays that cover all the major topics in the history of the revolution, including, the social causes of the revolution, the fall of the monarchy, women and the revolution, the story of Napoleon, and the legacies of the Revolution. Two additional chapters consider 'How to Read an Image' and the 'Songs of the Revolution.'" Within each essay are "icons in the margin" that lead to "primary source documents (images, texts, maps, songs) related to specific points in the essay." The BROWSE pathway is of greatest interest if any individual user is most interested in the primary sources available. It is divided into "six main categories of materials": images, text documents, maps, songs, glossary, and timeline. The SEARCH feature allows users "to locate all the materials on the site by keyword, topic, and type of resource (e.g., audio, text, image)." The site is a collaboration of the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University) and the American Social History Project (City University of New York). There is a companion book and CD-ROM of the same name, which are available (bundled) from Penn State University Press for $19.95. According to the website, "The book offers a brief but comprehensive narrative of the Revolution. The CD-ROM contains all the resources available on the Web and . . . also includes multimedia overviews that are not available on the Web." Users could "order the CD-ROM separately without the book from the American Social History Project for $15."
Type of Material:: Reference. The site contains some 338 texts, 245 images, and a number of maps and songs. It also contains a timeline and glossary as well as a "How to Read Images" section.
Recommended Uses:: The site could be used as the basis of one or more assignments in the history of the French Revolution. The essays and associated primary sources could become sources for a research paper, for a quiz, for assignments in document or image analysis, for role playing, for class discussions, for group presentations, and for most other kinds of assignments that history teachers normally use. World and/or Western Civilization surveys would benefit from this site.
Technical Requirements:: The songs are in Realmedia files. The site provides information about how to download the necessary software. Navigation is either by clicking on icons or through drop-down menus.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: No learning goals are stated explicitly. From the existing evidence, I judge that the primary purpose of the site is for students to develop a deeper understanding of the French Revolution. Whether or not the site developers intend it, I think that using the site extensively would also help students learn to recognize the difference between primary sources and secondary material about the French Revolution.
Target Student Population:: The authors of the site aim it at college students enrolled in Western civilization, world civilization, or European history courses. It might be useful in high school AP courses. Graduate students might find the primary sources useful but would probably find the essays too simplistic for their purposes.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Students will need an understanding of vocabulary (and the concepts linked to that vocabulary) beyond that in everyday use in the United States. Probably the easiest way to meet this pre-requisite is to read the site's essays and primary sources in connection with a standard textbook rather than having the site serve as a replacement. In the essays the authors use terms such as guilds, journeyman, capitalism, Enlightenment, and feudalism without much explanation. Many of these are in the Glossary, but that is not obvious, since the terms are not linked from the essays to the Glossary. Any student who is also using a regular textbook is more likely to have been exposed to these ideas prior to using this site. As long as they understand the terminology, however, they should have no trouble understanding the essays on the site. Although it is not an absolute pre-requisite for students, those who have had previous experience in analyzing primary sources will have an advantage over those who have not. To aid students in interpreting songs and images, there are two essays devoted to those subjects. These essays are very useful. There is no similar effort on the site that would teach students how to interpret text documents. Even those students who have not had extensive computer experience should not have much difficulty navigating the site, since drop-down menus and clicking on icons provide the primary way of moving from one page to another.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: Despite the laundry list of criticism below, overall this is an excellent site that would be most useful to faculty and students alike. The site was many years in the making, and was the product of work by several leading historians of the French Revolution. The Explore section includes the following categories or chapters: Social Causes of the Revolution, Monarchy Embattled, the Enlightenment and Human Rights, Paris and the Politics of Rebellion, Women & the Revolution, Monarchy falls, War, Terror, & Resistance to the Revolution, Slavery & the Haitian Revolution, Napoleonic Expansion, and Legacies of the Revolution. Also included are two sections, one on songs and another on How to Read Images. Social Causes section notes correctly that Despite the social rifts surrounding the political debate of mid-1789, most contemporaries fervently sought social unity. This suggests that social unrest may not necessarily have been the basic cause of the outbreak of the Revolution. The Monarchy Embattled chapter rightly mentioned that even Louis XIV was far from being all-powerful. This is a point that student's are often ignorant of. There is even mention of assassination attempt on Louis XV. Several other important points are made in the site: no single interpretation can ever be entirely complete or correct in explaining historical events as important as the outbreak of the French Revolution; and in other section, This led to one of the great paradoxes of the French Revolution: though the male revolutionaries refused to grant women equal political rights, they put pictures of women on everything, from coins and bills and letterheads to even swords and playing cards. Women might appear in real-life stories of heroism, but they were much more likely to appear as symbols of something else. The site clearly distinguishes between the Revolution as it occurred in paris on the one hand and in the countryside on the other. The juxtaposition of primary sources next to the essays is excellent, e.g. the Women in the Revolution essay is connected to a map of Paris in the Revolution with 20 images, 30 documents and one song. Each primary source has a short introduction to explain its place in the events. Writers of the essays do not assume that students will read every essay. The concept of the Three Estates is explained in more than one essay. The essay on Legacies of the Revolution ties developments to modern movements such as socialislm, nationalism, and conservatism while the essay on Women in the Revolution ties the women's rights movement to the Revolution. This increases the relevance of the material for students because many students do not seem to understand that the past is related to the preseent.
Concerns:: Several problems do exist, and students should at least be aware of them. There is more coherence within individual essays than across them. For example, The Napoleonic Experience discusses how Napoleon reestablished a patriarchal order, but the Women in the Revolution essay does not touch on that. In the essay on Leagicies of the Revolution, there is a discussionof theRevolution's impact on the politics of the United States. This was one of the few areas where the accouracy of the content raises questioins. For example, the essay stated that the Federalists had "declining influence in American politics" in the 1790s, while in reality the Federalists remained the larger party throughout the decade. It also said that "Conflict over land and borders bsetween these two ostensibly friendly nations would sour many mericans on France and its revolutiion." In reality, however, the conflict was primarily over the rights of neutral nations to trade with both sides in the ongoing revolutionary wars. The naval Quasi-War with France in the administration of John Adams was not about conflict over borders between France and the U.S. The war was 1798-1800, but France did not regain control of Louisiana until 1800, the same year that naval peace was reestablished. There is also concern about adequate definitions of som of the terminology used in the essays. Some text documents have been taken from a range of sources, some of which have modern syntax and word usage and some that don't. This is not too serious a concern,since this is tre of primary sources used in most history classes. The Social Causes of the Revolution chapter may cause one to conclude that the growth of Frances population along with its traditional social organization and rise of capitalism helped to bring on the Revolution in 1789. These were certainly significant conditions that surrounded the Revolution, but they had existed for some time prior to the Revolution and, as the site admits, agency for the Revolution is difficult to determine. On a related note, the importance of poverty and class interests are outlined, and perhaps overstated. The causes section overlooks the fact that some of the most important early revolutionaries, influenced by Enlightenment ideals, betrayed their own class. Fortunately, examples of just such a person (Turgot) is mentioned in a later section. Also, the site could have mentioned that the representatives of the Third Estate were often attorneys, and peasants (who composed most of France at the time) were far and few between. According to the site, The attack on the Bastille on 14 July 1789, for example, was a real battle with guns and cannons, opposing the Paris population, which sought to liberate prisoners from a hated prison, and with the kings troops garrisoned in the fortress. In addition, the Bastille was a prison "where many writers who had defended liberal causes had been imprisoned. The above should be taken with a large grain of salt. Students would benefit from reading Simon Schamas account of the Bastille's fall (389-94). According to Schama, conditions within the Bastille were relatively comfortable, especially for the time. Many of the prisoners were permitted to bring their own possessions and to keep dogs and cats to deal with the vermin. One of these prisoners included the infamous Marquis de Sade, sent there by his family. The marquis was held there until the week before the Bastille fell, too full advantage of these privileges to bring a host of items with him to the prison. In addition, the royal authorities were planning to close the prison prior to its fall. After the Bastille fell, the taking of the prison resulted in the liberation of a grand total of seven prisoners, one of whom had the appropriate long beard. Of course, the hapless prison warden was murdered after the prisons surrender, and his head paraded through the street, suggesting that extremism and violence were key characteristics of the Revolution from its beginning. All-in-all, a bit more critical analysis of pro-Revolutionary propaganda regarding the Bastille would be helpful. In discussing Enlightenment figures, the site might have mentioned Rousseaus abusive treatment of his peasant wife and abandonment of their children, especially given how seriously his ideas concerning child rearing and education were taken. The site claims that After the fall of Robespierre in July 1794, the National Convention eliminated price controls, and inflation and speculation soon resulted in long bread lines once again. It should have noted that shortages created bread lines; these shortages were brought on by price controls and revolutionary violence that disrupted grain shipments. These elementary economic facts should not be ignored. Monarchy Falls chapter might have said a bit about Louis XVI's lack of backbone, inability to act ruthlessly using his mercenaries. At one point, the site claims that roughly 15 percent of French land that the church owned became "national property," which the assembly began to sell off to pay its debts. Different historians give different numbers here, ranging from 5-20 percent. The site itself is not consistent, claiming under Social Causes of the Revolution that Needing substantial revenues, the assembly targeted church lands, which accounted for 10 percent of all landed wealth in France. War, Terror, & Resistance section would benefit from at least noting that the Revolution reintroduced fanaticism to European war, not seen since the wars of religion. Civilians also (unfortunately) return to war, in way again not seen since the wars of religion. In the Napoleonic section, the site claims that As he [Napoleon] advanced, the Russians retreated, destroying food and fodder in a calculated "scorched-earth" policy. According to Napoleonic military historian Owen Connelly, This is a myth. The only villages burned were set afire by Cossack bands or, very rarely, by other army unites. The [Russian] line soldier, whatever his province was a peasant farmer and resisted burning another peasants crops.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: The wide range of assignments that could be designed in connection with this site is a strength. For example, role playing would be very easy, since every essay provides more than one perspective on events, and primary sources are usually available from more than one perspective. More and more practitioners of history believe that students should learn how to analyze sources as a means of conveying knowledge about the discipline itself. This site would facilitate that. Assignments requiring analysis of sources would be particularly easy to design, especially because of the special essays on the use of songs and images. Another type of assignment that could be readily constructed would be an essay in which students have to compare and contrast what their textbooks say upon a particular subject with the information available from the site. Such subjects could range from relatively simple, such as what each says about the Third Estate, to relatively complex, such as the role of women in the Revolution. A more complex assignment would be a research paper, in which the resources available here would become only a part of the materials used by a student. Teachers could easily construct quizzes or exams based on assigned readings within the site.
Concerns:: The site itself provides no lesson plans and no connected assignments. Teachers are on their own in figuring out how best to use the site. Hence, its effectiveness really relies on the care with which the teacher thinks about and designs an assignment to fit the larger goals of his/her course. Connected to this, I think, is that the site does not lay out its learning objectives as clearly as it could nor does it tell teachers clearly what prerequisite knowledge is needed. The homepage of the site does not adequately describe its purpose and organization. Instead, users have to click on another page, About this Site, which users can only access through the homepage, not from any other page. Therefore, teachers who do design assignments will need to provide careful instructions to students on how to use the site for the purpose of the assignment. Information about who to contact if one has trouble with the site is not on the homepage. That is available only by going to About this Site.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: Navigation is simple, with links from the essays opening into separate windows. The site seems to be well maintained. I found no broken links. Download times are minimal on a T1 line and tolerable on slower computers. The Quick Search feature works well. For example, entering estates located 60 items, including images, documents, essays, glossary items, and timeline entries. The site does an excellent job placing artwork and primary documents next to points made in the text.
Concerns:: It would be preferable if a lot of the information now on the About this Site page be placed on the homepage in order to facilitate usage. Two links in Explore are reversed. When one clicks on Songs, one goes to the page entitled How to Read Images. When one clicks on How to Read Images, one goes to the page entitled Songs. It took about 3 minutes to figure out what the problem was. It would be better if the Timeline items and the Glossary items were linked to the essays. Instead they appear only as a separate list in the Browse area or as part of the results of a search. That limits their overall usefulness.

Other Issues and Comments:: A bit more criticism of the Revolution may be in order. One might contend that in practice, the Revolution not only failed to put many Enlightenment ideals into practice, but created a more authoritarian regime (Napoleon). It certainly created a decade of turmoil and economic chaos, resulting in Terror that killed some 20,000 (mainly people who had not been aristocrats) and, as Burke predicted, opened the door to a military dictator. Inevitably, the Revolutionary attack on the Roman Church, produced a violent reaction. In the end, Napoleon's regime kept a far tighter grip on France, with his secret police, than any previous Bourbon king. During the decade of Revolution (1789-99), the rights gained were often abstract, at least for the people of time, as they struggled to feed themselves under the Revolutionary regime. Seeds of modern totalitarianism and total war, along with aggressive nationalism also were planted by the Revolution. Because of the lack of lesson plans, and because many high school social science teachers hve little history background, the site may create challenges for successful high school use. The site may be better for upper level courses in European history.
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