read reading and finish the worksheet

Joan Derk Van der Capellen Tot den Pol (JVCTP), To The People of the Netherlands (1781)

What do you know about the author? (profession, age, gender, social status, political views, etc.)

What are all the different ways that JVCTP refers to Netherlanders? How does he define “citizen” and how does this connect to the readings you did in Week Two (Enlightenment)?

How could the Dutch become revolutionaries? What actions/strategies/ideas were part of the “revolutionary toolkit”?

JVCTP compares the body politic with a “Company”. To what extent was that analogy revolutionary? In other words, why do you think it is significant that he would apply economic vocabulary to political theory?

National Assembly, “Declaration of the Rights of Man” (1789)

What do you know about the National Assembly? (who were the members, who did they represent, how was it created, etc.) Be specific about dates!

What was the context in which the Declaration was made? What was going on in France (and the world) in 1789 when it was written? Within that context, what was the Declaration’s purpose?

What is a citizen according to this document? How does this Declaration compare to the ideas of a the “social contract” that you read about and discussed in Week Two?

Do you think the authors of this document were prioritizing “liberty” or “equality”? What led you to your answer (i.e. provide evidence). What potential consequences would this have had if the Declaration was actually implemented as law in France?

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

What do you know about the author? (profession, age, gender, social status, political views, etc.)

Who was Wollstonecraft’s audience for this piece, and what was her purpose in writing this?

Looking back at what you read last week by Rousseau, how does the concept of “nature” fit into his argument? What does Wollstonecraft have to say about “nature”?

Given what you read in the excerpt from Godineau’s book, in what ways did the actions of women in the French Revolution reflect what Wollstonecraft says here? Are her assumptions about women correct?

Maximilien Robespierre, “On the Principles of Revolutionary Government” (1793)

What do you know about the author? (profession, age, gender, social status, political views, etc.)

Why does Robespierre claim that “the theory of revolutionary government is as new as the revolution which brought it into being”? How is the French “revolutionary government” different from anything before?

According to Robespierre, what is the “purpose of the government”? How does this compare to what Rousseau said about “the social contract” in what you read last week?

Robespierre writes “Constitutional government is principally concerned with civil liberty, and revolutionary government with public liberty.” What is the difference between “civil” and “public” liberty? Why is this difference significant to this particular moment in the French Revolution?

Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture, “Letter to the Directory” (1797)

What do you know about the author? (profession, age, gender, social status, political views, etc.)

Why were enslaved people active participants of the French Revolution?

In what ways is the French Revolution both global and local? What about the Haitian Revolution (FYI, Haiti = Saint Domingue)?

What was Toussaint Louverture arguing against in his letter? How does the question/concept of “truth” fit into this letter? What is “truth” and why might it be contested? What is the purpose of presenting ideas as truth?