The Age of Revolution

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The Age of Revolution The Age of Revolution Fall, 2014 Tuesdays, 2-4 Prof. James Oakes In the 1960s and 1970s leading historians—R. R. Palmer, Eric Hobsbawm, David Brion Davis--began speaking of an “Age of Revolution” extending from late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth centuries. The idea has recently been revived, but with a difference. The earlier generation focused almost exclusively on revolutions in Europe and North America. Today’s scholars have extended their sights to the broader Atlantic world, giving prominence to revolutions in Haiti and Latin America. They are more inclined to trace the connections between the Age of Revolution and the Age of Emancipation. This is a reading course that reviews some of the classic works in the field before moving on to some of the most recent scholarship on the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions, as well as the Revolutions of 1848 and the American Civil War. Requirements: Final grades will be based on both written work and participation in weekly discussions. Students will write one paper of approximately 15 pages framed as an advanced undergraduate lecture on “The Age of Revolution.” The paper will be based entirely on the readings for the course, it should demonstrate your familiarity with the course material, but it cannot be a historiographical essay. You are writing an undergraduate lecture. It should therefore explain what the “Age of Revolution” was and develop two or three major themes using concrete examples. Your grade for the course will be based on the paper grade, raised or lowered to reflect the quality of your class participation. Reading List: Sept. 2 Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution Jeremy Adelman, “An Age of Imperial Revolutions,” American Historical Review, v. 113, n. 2 (April, 2008), 319-140. Sept. 9 R. R. Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolution, vol. 1, The Challenge Sept. 16 R. R. Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolution, vol. 2, The Struggle Sept. 23 Carla Gardina Pestana, The English Atlantic in an Age of Revolution Sept. 30 Seth Cotlar, Tom Paine’s America: The Rise and Fall of Transatlantic Radicalism in the Early Republic Oct. 7 Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean. Oct. 14 Jonathan Sperber, Revolutionary Europe, 1780-1850 Oct. 21 Jonathan Israel, Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from the Rights of Man to Robespierre Oct. 28 Laurent DuBois, A Colony of Citizens David Geggus, ed., The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, pp. 4-20. Nov. 4` John Lynch, The Spanish-American Revolutions Nov. 11 Jeremy Adelman, Sovereignty and Revolution in the Iberian Atlantic Nov. 18 Mike Rapport, 1848: Year of Revolution Nov. 25 Timothy Mason Roberts, Distant Revolutions: 1848 and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism Dec. 2 Jonathan Sperber, Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life Dec. 9 Andre Fletch, The Revolution of 1861: The American Revolution in the Age of Nationalist Conflict .
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