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

[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.