HIST 312-01, The Fall of the Roman Republic, Fall 2012

Abstract

This seminar examines an extremely rich but highly contested period in modern French histo-ry. Following the disastrous Franco-Prussian War, a newly created democratic government was soon rocked by scandals from the infamous Dreyfus affair to anarchist bombings. These last years of the nineteenth century also witnessed major transformations in French culture and society, from the rapid expansion of empire to renegotiations of gender relations to a flowering of art and entertainment all of which had broader consequences outside of France. Despite the tumultuous political and social change, France rallied to fight World War I, the most brutal military endeavor Europe had seen. This course ends with the war experience and how it cre-ated new questions which France would have to confront in the 1920s.