History 541: France, 1815 to the present S 2002 Prof. J. Popkin

Study Sheet for 1^st Midterm

Instructions for the exam: the first midterm exam for History 541 will be held in class on Monday, Feb. 11. The exam will cover all material we have studied in the course up to that time: Pp. 1-152 of Popkin, History of Modern France, the readings in Traugott, The French Worker, and pp. 1-52 of Hyman, The Jews of Modern France. The exam is closed-book and closed-note. Bring a blue book and a pen with enough ink to get you through the hour.

Structure of the exam: The exam will include an essay section (2/3 of total grade) and an ID section (1/3 of total grade). There will be some choice of questions on both sections. You should plan on using about 35 min. of the exam period for the essay question and 15 min. for the ID’s.

Things to know for the exam:

• What were the most important legacies of the Old Regime, the Revolution, and the Napoleonic period for 19^th-century France?
• The names, dates, and major characteristics of the different regimes (governments) in France, from 1815 to the 1880s: Restoration, July Monarchy, Second Republic, Second Empire, 3^rd Republic. Who headed the government in each period? Who was eligible to participate in politics? Which governments were constitutional monarchies? Democratic republics? Bonapartist regimes? What were the major policies of these different regimes?
• The situations that resulted in the many changes of government during this period: defeat of Napoleon, Revolution of 1830, Revolution of 1848, coup d’état of 2 Dec. 1851, Franco-Prussian War, Paris Commune, origins of 3^rd Republic.
• The major features of French society during this period: what was the role of the nobility? The bourgeoisie? Workers? Peasants? Were there significant differences between the lives of men and women? What were they? How had the revolutionary period affected the situation of France’s Jewish minority?
• What were the major characteristics of the French economy during this period? How are they illustrated by the selections in Traugott, The French Worker?
• Some major aspects of French culture during this period: why is it often described as a bourgeois culture? What was the role of religion and the Catholic Church? What was the significance of the early socialist movements? What do the readings in Traugott tell us about working-class and popular culture? Did Jews form a separate cultural group?
• Names to know: Louis XVIII, Decazes, Charles X, Bonald, Louis-Philippe, Guizot, Thiers, Saint-Simon, Enfantin, Fourier, Louis Blanc, Lamennais, George Sand, Balzac, Daumier, Bédé, Voilquin, Perdiguier, Nadaud, Truquin, Dumay, Bouvier, Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, Cavaignac, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III), Falloux, MacMahon, Gambetta, Jules Ferry, Emile Zola
• Terms to know: Ultras, Chambre introuvable, Saint-Simonians, romanticism, republicanism, Carbonari, socialism, feminism, industrialization, urbanization, railroad-building boom, July Days (1830), February Revolution (1848), June Days (1848), Luxembourg Commission, assimilation (of Jews), nationalism, Bonapartism, Cobden-Chevalier treaty, Franco-Prussian war, Paris Commune, ‘Moral Order’ government, Opportunism, Alsace-Lorraine, compagnonnages, Tour de France, mutual-aid societies, artisans, proletarians.
• France and the world: how did other countries view France during this period? How did the foreign policies of the Second Empire and Third Republic differ from those of the Restoration and the July Monarchy?
• Themes to think about: Why were French governments so unstable during this period? Were living conditions for French workers improving during this period? Can this period be characterized as one of bourgeois dominance?

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