PROJECTS
This project was developed by Professor Ruben Garrote.
Professor Ruben Garrote
(Adapted from our gamebook, Marc Carnes' Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791, pp. 41-44.)
The French Revolution was largely the work of a new political entity: the political club. As part of the game, students will join political clubs (the Jacobin Club, Cordeliers Club, Cercle Social, the Feuillants Club, Les Amis du Roi). All clubs must announce their creation on Blackboard. Some characters (indeterminates) will not belong to a club at the start of the game. They are encouraged to “visit” one club or all. By the end of the first semester, however, most players should belong to a club.
Each club will publish a newspaper, due 1 December 2009. In preparation for this, clubs will elect a newspaper editor and announce his or her name on Blackboard. The editor will have the responsibility of approving every paper submitted for the club’s newspaper. The newspaper must be published on Blackboard (e.g. as a student webpage) and be submitted to turnitin.com.
In the newspaper, the club will, at minimum:
1. Publish the names of its members.
2. Publish a statement of its philosophy.
3. Each newspaper will also offer reports and editorials on various political and cultural issues of the day.
No single student is expected to master all the details of the many complex situations confronting France in 1791. Therefore, clubs should organize themselves as laid out in the rulebook, pp. 43-44. It is suggested that newspaper articles reflect this organization.
Students who are not members of a political club at the time the assignment is due must still submit articles to one—or perhaps all—of the newspapers.