Revolutionaries in Nineteenth-Century Europe
- Course Code
- HIST 0860
- Course Type
- Seminars
- Subject Credit
- Course Availability
Each seminar runs only if there is sufficient student demand. This seminar explores the cultural and intellectual context of European revolutionaries during the nineteenth century. It centres on the careers and writings of figures such as Benjamin Constant, Henri de St-Simon, Robert Blum, Robert Owen, George Sand, Giuseppe Mazzini, Karl Marx, and Frederick Engels. Between the French Revolution of 1789 and the 1871 Paris Commune, Europe was shaken by a series of political, social, economic and cultural revolutions. The emergence of national identities, the impact of industrialism and the erosion of old hierarchical structures were among the contributors to this instability. No aspect of traditional society, from monarchy and religious orthodoxy to farming techniques a nd family patriarchy, remained unquestioned. After 1871 and the unifications of Germany and Italy, the internal peace of Europe seemed to have bee n re-established under conservative governments. Europe’s economic and political dominance over the rest of the world was solidified in this period through the expansion of global empires. Yet beneath the appearance of stability, the sources of new upheavals continued to grow.
Sample Syllabus
- Revolutions and revolutionaries
- Constant and the French Revolution
- Henri de St Simon
- Robert Owen and Utopian Socialism
- Robert Blum and 1848
- Guiseppe Mazzini and the Risorgimento
- Women and Revolution
- The Paris Commune
- Marx and Engels