Western civilization

Choose one of the topics listed below. Your answer should include citations to at least three of the Internet primary sources from this week’s readings.

In interpreting the primary source documents, you should also consider the background information found in the Chambers text about the European societies that produced them. In your initial posts, please indicate which question you are addressing. It should be obvious, but unfortunately, it isn’t always.

1) Examine three of the primary sources for Week Three, discussing the ways in which these sources reflect Enlightenment principles. How do the ideas expressed in these texts differ from those of preceding ages? In what ways did the Enlightenment challenge established knowledge and reorient society’s priorities? What impact did these new ways of thinking have upon European society in the eighteenth century?

Your discussion should draw from three of the following sources: Joseph II on Religious Toleration (Chambers, p. 559), What is Enlightenment (Chambers, p. 561), Mary Wollstonecraft on the Education of Women (Chambers, p. 565), and Rousseau’s concept of the General Will (Chambers, p. 566), The Social Contract by Rousseau (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/rousseau-soccon.asp); and On Crimes and Punishments by Beccaria (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/18beccaria.asp).

2) Discuss the Internet documents John Wilkes on Parliamentary Reform ), Burke on American Reconciliation (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1751-1775/libertydebate/burk.htm), and Jefferson on Religious Freedom, 1779€³ (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/draft1779.htm). What do you learn about revolutionary and reform movements in England and America during the late eighteenth century? How do these movements compare with the revolutionary changes taking place in France around the same time?

3) Discuss the Internet documents Abbe Sieyes, What is the Third Estate?’ (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sieyes.asp), Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp), and De Gouges on Women’s Rights (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1791degouge1.asp), along with Two Views of the Rights of Man (Chambers, 580). What do you learn from these documents about the principles that inspired the French Revolution? To what degree did the revolution succeed in implementing these principles?

4) Discuss the Internet documents Levee-en-Masse, 1793€³ (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1793levee.asp), Robespierre €“ The Cult of the Supreme Being (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-supreme.asp), and Robespierre €“ Justification of the Use of Terror (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robespierre-terror.asp), along with Robespierre’s Justification of the Terror (Chambers, 591) and A Portrait of the Parisian Sans-Culotte (Chambers, 593). What do you learn from these documents about the Radical Revolution of 1792-1794? What were the goals of the radicals and how did they justify their actions?