Study Question for Revolutions: Social and Political

1. Sometimes said that the French Revolution was a social revolution as well as a political one, while the American was only a political one. What would that mean?

2. Compare the popular complaints against the rulers in such places as the Declaration and Sieyes’ piece. What historic inequalities was Jefferson thinking of when he wrote “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..” ?

3. Does it make sense that the difference between the two revolutions is traceable to the influence of Rousseau in France and Locke in the US. What is the evidence for and against such a proposition?

4. How does the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen compare with American ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights?

5. Is Robespierre’s “political morality’ a logical or inevitable outcome of the principles enunciated at the outset of the Revolution”?

Application:  Is the election of Trump a revolution? What from these document would lead us to judge it a revolution?.

Application:  does the US need another revolution, by the standards on the first?