1. What role did the Enlightenment and the American Revolution play in setting the stage for the French Revolution?
2. What was the condition of the Old Regime in the late eighteenth century, and how did that condition contribute to the outbreak of the French Revolution? What crisis in the Estates General occasioned the outbreak?
3. What course did the moderate stage of the Revolution follow? What were the major events of that stage, and what was the significance of each event? Why is this stage called "moderate"?
4. How was the radical stage of the Revolution "radical"? What course did this stage follow? What were its most significant events and personalities?
5. How did Napoleon reorganize French law, government, and education, and how did his reforms reflect both revolutionary and conservative values? How did Napoleon spread Revolutionary principles and institutions abroad? How did he ultimately fall from power and his empire collapse?
6. What were the implications of the French Revolution for Western civilizations? What ideas did the Revolution espouse, and how did these turn destructive in practice? In what terms did Edmund Burke predict this destructive turn?
7. How did Neoclassicism develop during the late Old Regime and Revolutionary periods? Who were the leading painters whose careers spanned late Old Regime, the Revolutionary period, and just after? How do their styles exemplify the artistic developments from the decline of the Rococo to the rise of Romanticism?
8. How did Neoclassical sculpture and architecture develop during this period? Who were the major figures in these arts, what are the hallmarks of their styles, and how do their styles reflect the growing identification of classical values with republican politics?
9. What are the basic characteristics of Classical music? What new forms did Classical composers develop? What is the particular significance of the sonata form? Why can the musical culture of this period be understood as the "swan song" of autocracy?
10. What did Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven contribute to the development of Classical music? In what forms did they excel, and what innovations did they introduce?
11. What does the term "classical" generally mean when applied to the arts? What do the terms "Classical" and "Neoclassical" mean in the context of the Enlightenment and Revolutionary period? What stylistic features do these terms historical designate?