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Politics

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Six Part German Caricature: Napoleon Is Now Reduced to a Manageable Size!

Napoleon is mocked through this diminutive portrayal of the former conqueror.

Original Format
Engraving

Physical Dimensions
18.8 x 25 cm

Painting of a slave sale
Teaching

Source Collection: Slavery and the Haitian Revolution

Since the revolutionaries explicitly proclaimed liberty as their highest ideal, slavery was bound to come into question during the French Revolution. Even before 1789 critics had attacked the slave trade and slavery in the colonies.

Detail from the poster "Our Brigade Leader" created in 1976.  The detail shows a family excitedly watching tv.  In the complete poster, they are watching a politician on tv.
Review

Chinese Posters: Propaganda, Politics, History, Art

Chinese Posters offers a rich collection of over 1,600 Chinese propaganda posters, representing a time period from 1841 to the present day, and a rich range of political, social, cultural, and visual themes.
Teaching

Source Collection: War, Terror, and Resistance to the French Revolution

One fault line that has divided inquiries into the Terror has been its connections to the democracy introduced in 1789.

Source

British Liberty Tree

These painted engravings ridicule the unrest wrought by French revolutionaries by contrasting French subversion with British stability.

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Expulsion of the Girondins

Throughout the spring of 1793, radicals in the Convention, in the Paris Commune, and in the sections struggled for power against Brissot and his allies, known as the "Girondins." They differed over how the Revolution should be affected by popular pressure.

Teaching

Source Collection: French Monarchy Falls

Although the monarchy had always struggled against elites over the definition of royal power, virtually no one could imagine France being governed without a king. At the outset of the French Revolution, only a handful of citizens had even contemplated a republic.

Source

The Tragic End of Louis XVI

As 80,000 crowded into the square to watch the execution of Louis XVI, they cannot have been unaware that the guillotine sat where a statue of Louis XV had been. Here Sanson, the executioner, snatches the detached head of Louis XVI to show to the crowd. He leans forward with approving eagerness.

Source

Robespierre’s Second Speech (28 December 1792)

As part of his defense, Louis’s lawyers had suggested the King should be judged not by the representatives of the people in the Convention but by the people themselves through a referendum.

Teaching

Source Collection: Women and the Revolution

Women participated in virtually every aspect of the French Revolution, but their participation almost always proved controversial. Women's status in the family, society, and politics had long been a subject of polemics.