Open Yale Courses

HIST 276: France Since 1871

Mirrored from oyc.yale.edu · CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 · John Merriman Charles Seymour Professor of History

Mirrored from: oyc.yale.edu · Yale University · History

Instructor: John Merriman Charles Seymour Professor of History · License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0

About this course

This course covers the emergence of modern France. Topics include the social, economic, and political transformation of France; the impact of France's revolutionary heritage, of industrialization, and of the dislocation wrought by two world wars; and the political response of the Left and the Right to changing French society.

Course details

Course Structure

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Fall 2007.

Texts

Barbusse, Henri. Under Fire. London: Penguin Books, 2004.

Bloch, Marc. Strange Defeat. New York: Norton, 1999.

Carles, Emilie. A Life of Her Own. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Farmer, Sarah. Martyred Village. Berkley: University of California Press, 2000.

Sowerwine, Charles. France since 1870: Culture, Politics and Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

Zola, Emile. Germinal. London: Penguin Books, 2004.

Requirements

In addition to the lectures, there will be a weekly discussion section, time to be arranged. One of the sections will be taught in French. A short paper will be required, in consultation with the instructors. There will be a mid-term examination, and a final exam, which may be taken either as a written or oral examination, and three films will be shown.

Grading

Grades will be determined by equally weighing the midterm, final and paper grades.

Syllabus

1 section · 22 lectures · links open at oyc.yale.edu.

Course sessions

IntroductionLecture 1
Centralized State and RepublicLecture 3
The Waning of Religious AuthorityLecture 5
Workshop and FactoryLecture 6
Mass Politics and the Political Challenge from the LeftLecture 7
Dynamite Club: The AnarchistsLecture 8
General Boulanger and Captain DreyfusLecture 9
Cafés and the Culture of DrinkLecture 10
Paris and the Belle ÉpoqueLecture 11
French Imperialism (Guest Lecture by Charles Keith)Lecture 12
The Origins of World War ILecture 13
Trench WarfareLecture 14
The Home FrontLecture 15
The Great War, Grief, and Memory (Guest Lecture by Bruno Cabanes)Lecture 16
The Popular FrontLecture 17
The Dark Years: Vichy FranceLecture 18
ResistanceLecture 19
Battles For and Against AmericanizationLecture 20
Vietnam and AlgeriaLecture 21
Charles De GaulleLecture 22
May 1968Lecture 23
ImmigrationLecture 24

This is a mirror of HIST 276: France Since 1871 from Yale University Open Yale Courses, distributed under CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0. Attribution: John Merriman Charles Seymour Professor of History.

Snapshot fetched 2026-05-14T19:23:17Z. For the canonical version, visit the upstream page.

← back to /learn/