Module Descriptors
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON
HIPO50429
Key Facts
Health, Education, Policing and Sciences
Level 5
15 credits
Contact
Leader: Martin Brown
Hours of Study
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities: 24
Independent Study Hours: 126
Total Learning Hours: 150
Assessment
  • TOPIC ASSIGNMENT weighted at 70%
  • SOURCE ASSIGNMENT weighted at 30%
Module Details
Resources
Library for books, journals, newspapers and periodicals including subscription online resources such as Blackwell Reference Online and Oxford Reference Online.

The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.
Additional Assessment Details
Topic assignment of 2200 words (70%)
Learning Outcomes: 1, 2, 3

Sources assignment of 800 words (30%)
Learning Outcomes: 1, 4

Key Information Set:
100% coursework
Indicative Content
In the French Revolution there was an unprecedented overthrow and dismantling of Absolutist royal authority, and the attempt by the revolutionaries to create a new society based on 'liberty, equality, and fraternity'. Moderate reform was followed by war, the abolition of the monarchy, the declaration of a Republic and the period of the 'Terror'. Napoleon's rise to power was meteoric and led to a Napoleonic Empire that at its height dominated much of Europe and the introduction of the Napoleonic 'Code'. The module considers the causes, course and outcomes of the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and the formation of the Napoleonic Empire, including the Egyptian campaign and its 'civilising mission'. The military and civil strengths of the Empire are studied, before analysing forms of resistance and the reasons for the eventual fall of Napoleon in 1815.
In the topic assignment students can follow up a topic in more depth from the module content; for the sources assignment there is a choice of source documents, written and visual, with guidance on how to provide a historical commentary on them.
Learning Strategies
Workshops introduce the main themes and arguments of the module content together with discussion and analysis of a range of written and visual source materials. The independent study element should be used for background reading, reading for the workshops, and research and preparation of the written assignments.

Key Information Set:
16% scheduled teaching and learning activities
84% guided independent learning
Texts
Nigel Aston The French Revolution 1789-1804: Authority, Liberty and the Search for Stability (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Paul R. Hanson Contesting the French Revolution (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) [Series: Contesting the Past]
Alan Forrest Napoleon (Quercus, 2011)
Charles Esdaile Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815 (Penguin, 2008)
Peter McPhee & Philip Dwyer (Eds.) The French Revolution and Napoleon: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2002)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In taking this module students are disqualified from taking:
HIPO50500
HIPO60020
HIPO60501