Research Essay Questions
1. How can the study of foreign involvement in OR responses to the French Revolution enrich understanding of the events and their legacy upon Modern Europe? (feel free to
narrow your scope or use a particular kind of source to limit the inquiry)
2. How do you account for developments in Robespierre’s political career from 1789 to his downfall and execution in 1794?
3. How have historians used records of the Congress of Vienna to explore new research questions about politics and diplomacy in the nineteenth century?
Note: While the question invites you to engage with recent historiography, you should still make reference to primary source material. You are also welcome to adapt the question to focus on particular sources or issues relating to the Congress and/or its legacy.
4. What role did intellectuals play in the 1848 revolutions and/or in shaping the legacy of the revolutions? (You may focus on intellectuals writing in direct response to the revolutions or evaluations later in the century.)
5. How can British press sources aid our understanding of the impact and legacy of the French Revolution across the Channel?
6. How can the historian use the first person accounts (diaries and letters) of British traveller and agriculturalist Arthur Young to develop understanding of Revolutionary France?
7. How can analysis of Ernest Renan, “What is a Nation? (1882)” in Stuart Woolf (ed.) Nationalism in Europe: From 1815 to the Present, London: Routledge, 1995, pp. 48-60, aid our understanding of the development of modern nationalism in nineteenth century?
8. Explore the impact of industrialisation on European families and the making of the working class? (Note: you may choose focus on specific regions, professions (factory work, domestic service, sex work) or social issues relating to gender and/or families.) Some source ideas: Newspaper and other print sources, literary sources: Defining Gender database, London Low Life database, the Proceedings of the Old Bailey database, Research Sources database (Women’s Studies collection), Visual sources (Gallica, museums, Punch Magazine cartoons, etc.)
