A lecture series on the French Revolution. The 25 years between the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 and the Bourbon Restoration after Napoleon in 1814 is an astonishing period in world history. This era shook the foundations of the old world and marked a permanent shift for politics, religion, and society ; not just for France, but for all of Europe.

Title from disc surface. Course no. 8220. Program contains forty-eight lectures; the length of each lecture is: ca. 30 min. Lecture notes and program information contained in course guidebook.

Disc 1.Introduction and the old regime monarchy ; Privilege: old regime society ; The Enlightenment ; France, global commerce, and colonization ; American revolution and the economic crisis ; The political awakening of 1789 -- Disc 2. July 14th: storming the Bastille ; Peasant revolt and the abolition of feudalism ; The declaration of the rights of man ; Paris commands its king ; Political apprenticeship in democracy ; Religion and the early revolution -- Disc 3. The revolution and the colonies ; Women's rights in the early revolution ; The king's flight ; Foreign reactions: a divided Europe ; The path to war with Europe ; Overthrowing the monarchy -- Disc 4. The king's trial ; The Republic at war ; Revolutionary culture and festivals ; Family and marriage ; Slave revolt and the abolition of slavery ; Counterrevolution and the Vendée -- Disc 5. The pressure cooker of politics ; Revolution in crisis: summer 1793 ; Terror is the order of the day ; The revolution devours her children ; The overthrow of Robespierre ; The Thermidorian reaction -- Disc 6. The Directory: an experimental republic ; Young Napoleon ; The Italian campaign and the sister republics ; Sister republics? France and America ; Bonaparte in Egypt ; Bonaparte seizes power -- Disc 7. Building power: general and first consul ; Napoleon becomes Emperor ; Napoleon's ambitions in the new world ; Taking on the great powers ; Expanding the empire ; France during the empire -- Disc 8. Living under the empire ; The Russian campaign ; Napoleon's fall and the Hundred Days ; Waterloo and beyond ; Emerging political models ; Revolutionary legacies.