The Revolution in Fifteen Minutes

[wolfshadow713.livejournal.com]

I have a dilemma. For my French class, I am giving a presentation on the French Revolution. The focus of the class is the history of Paris, so I guess I need only focus on the parts of the Revolution pertaining to Paris but, even so, that's a lot of material. The presentation isn't supposed to be all that long, so I can't go hugely in-depth, but I've generally been dissatisfied with brief overviews of the Revolution becuase it seems they tend to play into popular misconceptions (misconceptions that can to favor apologists from either end of the spectrum) because they don't have time to explain the nuances of the situation. So, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the most important events/details to include to provide a balanced perspective on the Revolution.

Though, I'm tempted to assume that most students in an intermediate/advanced level college French class should have over the years absorbed enough about the Revolution to know the basics and then just talk about the arguments surrounding Paris' influence on the Revolution...

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

If you think they have some background, have you considered the possibility of addressing the question from the point of view of those misconceptions? Or not even necessarily misconceptions so much as idées reçues...? That's essentially what Jean-Clément Martin does in his short Revolution entry in the series of that name, and I think it's a method that can work well. Since you're just focussing on Paris, you would obviously have to adapt the idea to Parisian issues specifically, but in a way, that makes your task easier, because you don't have to address the goings-on in the provinces.

The other issue is that, in my experience, people tend to know - or at least think they know - a lot about 1789 and then 1793-94, without really having a clear idea of how you get from one to the other, so you may have to do a bit more filling in there.

Good luck!

[missweirdness.livejournal.com]

God that's a toughie; a lot happened even within Paris during the revolution; You mean throughout the revolutionary years? Again you just add key points like the king and his family being taken prisoner. But that's vague i have to say. I wish they could of given you more idea than that. I wouldn't be able to summarize so much in just 15 minutes. Talk about robespierre and the rise of the jacobins and their constant feuding and eventual rise to power etc; that kind of stuff. Hey i'd just stuff a lot of facts into it as much as possible.

Good luck though.
Hopefully you can come up with a way..

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

If it has to be Paris-centred, how about the events of August/ September 1793, food demonstrations, speculation, the crowd entering the Convention and the beginning of the Terror - could be an interesting area because speculation and the chaos that causes are very relevant to the current political situation (a couple of days ago a leading politician here said 'the bankers are lucky we don't have a guillotine' - he then had to point out he didn't mean that literally in case anyone arrested him for incitement to murder). It's also led by the actual people of Paris.