Thursday November 9, 2006 5:50 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:33 Sunset 17:57 Hours of daylight: 9:24

A. Morning Musings

5:50 am It is -4 C at the moment with a high of -3 C forecast.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at

I have coffee scheduled for this morning.

I finally got back to reading "Citizens" yesterday evening. It is a book I am enjoying, and after "Marie Antoinette", it felt like I was returning to familiar ground. Hopefully I will stay with it now. I still wonder about whether to take notes for this book, and if so, how. In large part it is a balancing act for time. Is it worth the time and effort? One can easily find excellent summaries and synopses on the Web for the topic of the French Revolution. Does it make more sense to simply read these than to read a fairly thick and comprehensive book on the topic? Certainly one would like to think that one learns more and remembers more by reading the thick book. A similar argument applies to the making of notes. By making them, one engages in a constructive form of "reading review", and this should result in a more complex and complete memory of the event, which may then permit connections to future events and activities. That is the actual goal. I am not taking a course, nor am I going to be examined on what I am doing.

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Model Trains	Begin assembly of 6 quad hopper cars	1 hr
Mathematics	Read & make notes for "Fearless Symmetry" chap 7: quadratic reciprocity	2 hr
History	Continue reading & making notes for "Citizens"	2 hr
Literature	Begin reading "Empire of the Sun" by J. G. Ballard	1 hr
Later
Chores	Investigate water softeners for home
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Begin reading "iPhoto"
	digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings
Philosophy	Read "The Art of Living" by Epictetus
Mathematics	Larson "Calculus"
	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
History	Watson "Ideas"
Model Trains	Build oil refinery diorama: add ground cover
	Assemble second oil platform kit
	Assembly of CN 5930, an SD40-2 with a NAFTA logo
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9

C. Actual/Notes

6:30 am Here are the last notes that I made about "Citizens":

	History 08 August 25
History Chronology
Notes for "Citizens" (1989) by Simon Schama. 6:40 am The first step, before making notes for chapters 6 - 7, is to do a short review without recourse to any notes. Key people: Louis XVI Marie Antoinette Jean-Jacques Rousseau Lafayette Talleyrand Turgot - Controller-General Vergennes - Foreign Affairs Necker - Controller-General Malesherbes Beaumarches Calonne - Controller-General Robespierre Key events: Seven Years War 1758 - 1765 1756 - 1763 American War of Independence 1775 - 1783 Coronation of Louis XVI 1775 1765 French Revolution 1789 - 1799 Key terms ancien regime Estates-General Farmers-General Parlements noblisse oblige Now to compare this with my notes. I am getting better at this. It is clear to me that knowing the dates of various events is critical to understanding the sequencing and unfolding of events. It might be possible to remember the three major causes of the French Revolution by memorizing a short list but to genuinely understand this one needs to also know the key people and the roles that they played. Now to copy my temporal table and make some additions based on chapters 6 - 7.   Date Person Event Commentary Page 1200 -1800   Parlements "The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130." They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs." The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.' 105     106 1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular   1715 - 1774 Louis XV   indecisive and unpopular his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars "Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy." "As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist." 100     103 1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI. Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France. He was very popular. he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation "Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..." 100       102 1700 - 1788   system of "privilege" Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption. Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received. "Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility." "the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy." 115   118 1700 - 1788   system of "venality" Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."   68 1700 - 1788   taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72 1756 - 1763   Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French   1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular   1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152 1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155 1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution. the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato) 167 1770 - 1800     "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131 1770     The system of Parlements was abolished. 108 1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19     1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs     1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.   1775 Louis XVI Coronation     1775     The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110 1775 - 1790 Marie Antoinette   she made no concessions to her public role, becoming brazenly outgoing. She gave gifts. offices and money to her favorites and their families 213 1775 - 1800     there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176 1775 - 1783   American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24 1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe "... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy" "No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time." "More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state." 62 1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle. Lafayette idolized Washington 24 1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General     1778   France enters into treaty relations with the USA     1779   French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather     1779 Lafayette returns to France       Benjamin Franklin   promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic     Talleyrand       1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General     1783   Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA   1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65 1783 - 1788   debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64 1784 -1786 Calonne Controller-General Calonne assumed that his policies would be imposed on the people rather than proposed to them (as did Necker). He also revelled in appearances and costly luxuries. 227-237 Feb 27, 1787 Assembly of Notables Calonne convenes the Assembly to publicly consider measures to resolve France's financial difficulties The notables began to display their independence and failed to follow Calonne's or Louis XVI's ideas, often going beyond them to more extreme measures of equality. rather than being the tail-end of the ancien regime, they were more like the first revolutionaries 243 1787 Brienne head of government initiated a number of reforms but antogonized the public with his approach 259 Nov 19, 1787 Paris Parlement block the government's program The Parlement was supported by loud and public support 264 1787 Brienne disbands the Parlements     Jun 7, 1788 Grenoble The Day of Tiles the first urban insurrection. The citizens threw tiles down on the soldiers who had been called out to maintain order. it signified the breakdown of royal authority it warned the elite beneficiaries of the disorder of the unpredictable consequences of encouraging a riot it delivered the initiative for further political action into the hands of younger, more radical, groups   Jun 14, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Mounier begins to organize opinion more systematically. The assembly prepared a list of statements that: identified anyone who opposed them as a traitor the new political order should pay attention to the material grievancences of the people who had empowered it they appealed to the entire region to meet and prepare for their new representation   Jul 21, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Meeting of the second assembly. Adopt the principle that goverments were founded to protect individual liberties, a new "American" concept.   Aug 8, 1788 Louis XVI Announces that the Estates-General would meet on May 1, 1789 This was a reversal of his earlier position where he had disbanded the Parlements and the local Estates. This encouraged the revolutionaries.   Aug 25, 1788 Brienne the government resigns large celebrations in Paris   1789 - 1799   French Revolution "The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it." It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought." The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'." 6     40       1789   Storming of the Bastille               The situation is rapidly escalating and getting out of hand. Louis XVI indecisiveness and reversing of decisions helped fuel the situation as there was a strong sense of a lack of leadership and control. At the same time the new patriotic fervour was growing quickly. 8:40 am

Now to begin adding to these.

	History 09 November 9
History Chronology
Notes for "Citizens" (1989) by Simon Schama. 6:30 am I like the general approach that I was taking just over 2 months ago. The idea of identifying key people, key events, key terms are three important dimensions in an understanding of the events. Another category is to try to capture the ethos of the times. The book is divided into 4 major parts. Here is the overall structure of the book: Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI Part Two: Expectations Part Three: Choices Part Four: Virtue and Death In greater detail: Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI 1. New Men 2. Blue Horizons, Red Ink 3. Absolutism Attacked 4. The Cultural Construction of a Citizen 5. The Costs of Modernity Part Two: Expectations 6. Body Politics 7. Suicides 8. Grievances 9. Improvising a Nation 10. Bastille Part Three: Choices Part Four: Virtue and Death   My notes include the time line of events described in the first seven chapters. Yesterday I completed reading chapter 8 and began chapter 9. As a result of reading "Marie Antoinette" I have a much better appreciation of the role of royal families in Europe in the 18th century - in particular the Bourbons (French/Spanish) and the Habsburgs (Austrian). The role of inter-marriage among the royal families of European countries was one of the primary ways of establishing political alliances among countries. Now to review chapters 7 and 8 and make additions to the following table (using a brighter green to indicate the additions).   Date Person Event Commentary Page 1200 -1800   Parlements "The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130." They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs." The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.' 105     106 1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular   1715 - 1774 Louis XV   indecisive and unpopular his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars "Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy." "As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist." 100     103 1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI. Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France. He was very popular. he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation "Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..." 100       102 1700 - 1788   system of "privilege" Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption. Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received. "Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility." "the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy." 115   118 1700 - 1788   system of "venality" Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."   68 1700 - 1788   taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72 1756 - 1763   Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French   1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular   1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152 1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155 1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution. the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato) 167 1770 - 1800     "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131 1770     The system of Parlements was abolished. 108 1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19     1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs     1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.   1775 Louis XVI Coronation     1775     The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110 1775 - 1790 Marie Antoinette   she made no concessions to her public role, becoming brazenly outgoing. She gave gifts. offices and money to her favorites and their families 213 1775 - 1800     there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176 1775 - 1783   American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24 1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe "... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy" "No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time." "More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state." 62 1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle. Lafayette idolized Washington 24 1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General     1778   France enters into treaty relations with the USA     1779   French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather     1779 Lafayette returns to France       Benjamin Franklin   promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic     Talleyrand       1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General     1783   Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA   1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65 1783 - 1788   debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64 1784 -1786 Calonne Controller-General Calonne assumed that his policies would be imposed on the people rather than proposed to them (as did Necker). He also revelled in appearances and costly luxuries. 227-237 Feb 27, 1787 Assembly of Notables Calonne convenes the Assembly to publicly consider measures to resolve France's financial difficulties The notables began to display their independence and failed to follow Calonne's or Louis XVI's ideas, often going beyond them to more extreme measures of equality. rather than being the tail-end of the ancien regime, they were more like the first revolutionaries 243   Assembly of Notables   "Representation and consent were now required not as the auxiliary to government but as its working condition." 259 1787 Brienne head of government initiated a number of reforms but antogonized the public with his approach "Neither the seriousness of the financial crisis in the late spring of 1787 nor the acknowledged excellence of the government's reforms was enough to disarm what had become insuperable political objections to traditional government procedure." 259 Nov 19, 1787 Paris Parlement block the government's program The Parlement was supported by loud and public support 264 1787 Brienne disbands the Parlements     Jun 7, 1788 Grenoble The Day of Tiles the first urban insurrection. The citizens threw tiles down on the soldiers who had been called out to maintain order. it signified the breakdown of royal authority it warned the elite beneficiaries of the disorder of the unpredictable consequences of encouraging a riot it delivered the initiative for further political action into the hands of younger, more radical, groups 274 Jun 14, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Mounier begins to organize opinion more systematically. The assembly prepared a list of statements that: identified anyone who opposed them as a traitor the new political order should pay attention to the material grievancences of the people who had empowered it they appealed to the entire region to meet and prepare for their new representation   Jul 21, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Meeting of the second assembly. Adopt the principle that goverments were founded to protect individual liberties, a new "American" concept.   Aug 8, 1788 Louis XVI Announces that the Estates-General would meet on May 1, 1789 This was a reversal of his earlier position where he had disbanded the Parlements and the local Estates. This encouraged the revolutionaries.   Aug 25, 1788 Brienne the government resigns large celebrations in Paris   Fall 1788     "The opportunity for constitutional reform was lost when the preservation of social distinctions - the orders of the old regime - became stigmatized as unpatriotic." 292 Fall 1788 - Winter 1789   famine, anger The fall of 1788 and the severe winter of 1789 severely damaged crops and led to widespread hunger, unemployment and starvation - leading to widespread anger. 305 Jan 24, 1789 Estate-General   The process for electing the nobility and clergy to the Estates-General was well defined but the procedure for the Third-Estate was complicated and indirect, leading to much confusion and dissatisfaction. 308 Spring 1789 Estate-General   The general population was encouraged to prepare lists of their grievances and these would then form the basis for the discussions of the Estate-General. In part this helped highlight many of the problems and injustices with the present system of govenment as well as creating a set of unrealistic expectations. 316 1789     The situation was rapidly escalating and getting out of hand. Louis XVI indecisiveness and reversing of decisions helped fuel the situation as there was a strong sense of a lack of leadership and control. At the same time the new patriotic fervour was growing quickly.   1789 - 1799   French Revolution "The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it." It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought." The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'." 6     40       1789   Storming of the Bastille               7:50 am The table now contains important sections for chapters 7 and 8. Now to read chapters 9 & 10.

 

D. Reflection