Week 3: Napoleon and Europe

There should be no doubt about it - Napoleon's imposing figure towered over those of his contemporaries, leaving behind the never-dying legend which still stokes the fire of public imagination.

Yet, how "exclusive" was his contribution in the final account? I am repeating the question posed in class - was Napoleon a progenitor of sweeping changes, or a mere instrument of multiple impersonal forces which fed into spread of the Revolution and its tenets beyond the French borders first into Europe and then into the rest of the world? We could turn this issue into a hypothetical quandary - could same, or similar, all-European transformations be brought into effect without Napoleon's involvement?

In your answer, I would like you to engage the primary sources assigned for this week - i.e. Napoleon's speeches to his army and Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation.

Week 2: Terror and Revolution

This week you were asked to read excerpts from the speech of Robespierre and Edmund Burke's seminal text "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The two thinkers, one - direct participant, the other - an observer, found themselves at the opposite poles of the political spectrum stretched into hitherto unknown parts of the public opinion thanks to the workings of the Revolution itself.

In the context of the reading materials assigned, I offer you the possibility of answering ONE of the two questions posed below:

1. How did both of the thinkers understand the meaning of "republic"? What made the "republic" functional in Burke's view - and how did his vision differ from that of Robespierre?

2. Robespierre is using the force of his rhetoric to justify the use of Terror. Burke, on the other hand, writing a few years before the Revolution turned to the terroristic means, laments the destruction resulting, as he puts it, from the "rash and ignorant counsel". What is your position on the issue of radicalism and Terror? Could the Revolution have succeeded without having recourse to violent means, by way of steady and liberal progression towards its goal?

Week 1: Introducing the Blog

The blog is established with a two-fold purpose in mind. First, as formal students for the course on the modern Europe, you will be required to submit an entry every week responding either to the principal question posed by me or to the comment made by one of your peers in reference to a weekly question (i.e. commenting the comment). My hope, however, is that, this blog would evolve into a forum where ideas inspired by class materials and reading assignments would be exchanged without fear and inhibition. Let's try to make this blog into a place of interests not only to ourselves but to the invisible visitors from the outside.