HIS 522 Study Guide for Final Exam F 2014 Prof. J.

Popkin

Overview of the Exam: The final exam will be similar to the midterms in this course, only
bigger and better. There will be two longer essay questions, one dealing with material we have
studied since the 2nd midterm, the other posing a broad question that will require you to draw on
material from the entire semester. There will also be a number of short-answer questions, similar
to those on the 2nd midterm, which you will answer with two or three sentences. The short-
answer questions will be drawn from a list including items from all the material we have studied
in the course. On both the essay questions and the short-item questions, you will have a choice
of topics.

 Might connect things from previous reading to new

o **Lessings ideas and Jewish rights to new readings**
o **Equiano**
 What did he think about the Haitian slave uprsising
 NO IMMANUEL KANT
 GO TO CRITIC OF NATURAL RIGHTS
o Burke
 Makes the most elaborate argument against natural rights
o Bentham
 GO TO CRITIC OF HAVING A GOVERNMENT
o Godwin
 We would better without government because they are always limiting
rights
 Haitian Revolution
o Be prepared to have a question over this
 Issue of slavery is central
 A Just society, we have not provided special privileges to any one
particular group and you can see how it is carried through to
UHDR
o Article 1
 DO you have a right to use violence?
o Unjust
 Two constitutions that came out of Haitian Constitution
o May be a question on the test
 Parts of the world  know the documents of these
o Latin and South America
 Brazil
 Simon Bolivar
 o Russia
 Decembrists
o Australia
 Many articles link to social issues
o Article 22
o Article 23
 Documents from the Directory after Robespierre is removed
o More constitutional government
 Differences in new Constitution and Declaration compared to earlier parts
of Revolution
 Has strong emphasis on protection of property
o Countered Maximum and Propertier Laws
 Rights and Duties
o You were no longer told just because you are human and
live here that you have rights
o Only have those rights if you do things in returns
o Have obligations
 That has always been obvious, but now spelling it
out since people during radical phase were only
getting things for themselves
o Examples
 Obey Laws
 Pay Taxes
 No one a good citizen unless you are a respectable
person in your personal life
 Earlier declaration left it up for people to
decide
o UHDR
 Also emphasizes family and private life
 Right to marry
 Right to happiness
o Article 25  have a right to welfare
of he and his family
 Seems to presuppose that people come in families
and not as isolated individuals
 American Bill of Right, French Declarations
of 1789, and 1793
 o All written in terms of isolated
individuals who may or may not be
in a family
 Assumes everyone will be a part of a family
and families
o Families must be protected by rights
o Directory opens the door to
protecting families
 Connecting Gerta to the Universal Rights
o **Article 16**  dreaming of a world in which one would not have to marry
someone they did not want to marry. Married Albert strictly for economic security
o **Article 24**  Every one having the right to emotional happiness
 How does the United States measure up to emotional happiness in terms of feasible
working hours, holidays with pay and other days off? Is it a right by American by the
Constitution? Could use in helping structure argument about developing right to
happiness
o NO. US is very much an outlier in this respect
o France and German legally require that citizens get 6 weeks’ vacation per year
 US has no legal permittance
 Everyone has a right to aspire to marriage and love according to Gerta
 French Revolutionary Documents
o Remember some of the issues that arose aside from the Declaration of the Rights
of Man
 Women’s Rights
 Radical Revolutionary Pieces
 Anarchist
 Robespierre
o 1793 Declaration he proposed
o Eventually some are included in new constitution
o Laws passed during Reign of Terror
 Levee en masse
 Everyone must participate in the war effort.
 Except older men and women
o Older men rally the troops
o Women make the supplies
 Maximum law
 Limits property
 Law of Suspects
 If you were suspected, you could be arrested
 o Anything that went against the
government
 Violated Due Process
o Did not have to listen to the defense
 Rights of Executioners
 Should there be a Declaration of Rights? Should it be drawn with
Constitution or separately?
 Who did Constitution first than Rights
o United States
o One can pick up the rights and the Constitution and see that
the Constitution does not violate any of the rights because
the Constitution came first and Rights adjusted to fit
Constitution
 Who did Rights first then Constitution?
o France
o Did the Constitution fit the Declaration?
 Were some people that it was bad idea because you
cannot write a Constitution could not fulfill all the
promises, so there would be grave consequences
 Different groups of rights that were debated
 Women, Jews, Executioners, Protestants, Free Blacks, Slaves
o Point in Universal Declaration
 In old Declaration seems to settle all questions by
simply saying all men, but when put to question,
they only applied to white men with property
 French Revolutionaries spent a great deal of time
debating who really is covered by the document
 Difference between UHDR and Declaration of
Natural Rights
 General language used in both However
o UHDR Article 2 lists all the groups
you cannot discriminate
 People knew from experience
that they needed to specify

Bring an exam book (blue book) and a PEN! Also, be sure to bring your copy of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (handed out in class). This is the only paper you
can bring to the exam other than your blank exam book.
Reminder of readings since the second midterm: Since the 2nd midterm exam on Nov. 7, we have
covered the following topics: France during and after the Terror (readings from laws of the
period), readings on the settlement of Australia, readings on the Haitian Revolution (Dubois and
Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean), readings on Latin American independence
movements, reading on the Russian Decembrist movement, readings on the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and critiques of the idea of human rights.

Themes to think about for the ‘big’ essay question

 how does the present-day conception of human rights compare to the various notions of
rights that were articulated in the period 1750-1800? Does the UDHR contain rights that
were not anticipated at the time? Can these ‘new’ rights be derived from ideas of rights
that existed 200 years ago, or do they indicate that the concept of rights has been
expanded since then?
o Comparing UDHR to past
 Groups that are included
 French Declaration of Rights
o Women, Jews, Executioners, Protestants, Slaves, and
Free People of Color Rights Debated
 Language was vague, so it was unclear who was
included
 Old Declaration Settled all questions with the
phrase “All Free Men”
 What about Free People of Color?
o NO
o Only White men with property
 UDNR
o Article 2 lists all groups that CANNOT be
discriminated against
o Personal Life/Family
 Direction Period France
 Not a good citizen unless you are a respectable human being in
your personal life
o i.e. taking care of your family
 Opens the door to protecting families
 French Declarations
 Left it up to people to decide how they were going to act in
their personal lives
 Rights written in terms of an isolated individual who may or
may not have a family
 American Bill of Rights
  Written in terms of the isolated individual who may or may not
have a family
 UDHR
 Emphasizes family and private life
o Right to Marry
o Right to Happiness
o Article 25  right to welfare for he and family
 Presupposes that people come in families, and not individuals
 FAMILY RIGHTS MUST BE PROTECTED
o New Rights
 Right to free education at elementary and fundamental stages
 Right to adequate standard of living for health and well-being
 Right to having limits on number of hours worked and paid holidays
 Rights focusing on families
 Connected to Old?
 Directionary period and France opened the door to rights for
family
 It was created and adopted in 1900s, so most of its rights came
from countries that already had most of the rights
o Strong US and England influence
o Have the concept of rights been expended over time?
 Has expanded over time in some areas
 Focuses more on social issues
 Focuses more on family
 Before, they used to focus mainly on an individual
 how would some of the authors we read in the course, such as Locke, Rousseau, Paine,
Equiano, Lessing, Burke, Wollstonecraft, Bentham, Godwin, Robespierre, the
participants in the Haitian Revolution, and the Latin American revolutionaries and the
Russian Decembrists, react to the UDHR? Be prepared to be asked to select three or four
of these authors and answer such a question.
o Bentham
 Support UDHR
 Did not believe in Natural Rights
o The only rights a person had were those on paper
 Could not go to court over a right that did not
exist on paper
o Does not protect rights of those born
o Greater good for greatest number
o People need boundaries
 o Decembrist
 NOT Support UDHR
 People had obligations to the country
 Did not receive rights unless they fulfill duty to the country
first
 How can the people make the country more prosperous,
powerful

o Equiano
 SUPPORT UDHR
 Abolished slavery
 Offered equal opportunity for education which would be
earned on the basis of merit
o Wollstonecraft
 SUPPORT UDHR
 Gave rights to women
 Universal education
 Allowed women the opportunity to hold government
o Godwin
 NO
 Humans are born free
 Not expected to follow rules they did not create
o If you did help create them, you could still reject them
later
 People would do what is right if they are left alone
o Burke
 No Support
 Goes against centuries of tradition and experience
 Men had a duty to protect women

Themes to think about for the ‘last-third-of-the-course’ essay question

 why did the French revolutionaries think that it was necessary to restrict certain rights
promised in the Declaration of 1789 during the period of the Reign of Terror?
o While the Declaration of 1789 promised the people rights, the Reign of
Terror established a temporary totalitarian dictatorship which later becomes
permanent. Rights were suspended because there was still a lot of violence in
the country and enemies of the Revolution that needed to be killed before
they could enjoy their Rights. There is also the issue of when do you end the
Revolutionary Regime and make sure it stays gone or when is the right time
 to leave the revolutionary government. It can be unclear because those who
are in power during the Revolutionary Government will not be willing to give
up that power, so you would have to have another revolution to destroy it
(Napoleon came in a took over France and tossed the Constitution, so no one
got to enjoy those rights). Another possibility is that you may abolish the
government, but not know how else to govern, and just stick with old regime
still like Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall fell.
 is there any way to reconcile the laws passed during the Terror with the idea of natural
rights? How did Robespierre try to argue that the dictatorship of the Terror could be seen
as a way of defending natural rights? Is there any substance to his argument?
o During the revolution, there were laws created such as the Propertier Law. It
made monopolies illegal and forced citizens to sell their goods when it was
demanded of them at a price the government set. You could hold out until
prices rose, and if they suspected that you had too much, they would just
seize your property.
o Have to spend rights now in order to someday give them back to you with no
assurance of when they were going to be given back
 Get them back once all enemies are gone
 Kings and nobles oppose natural rights
 Until they are gone, the people cannot sit back and enjoy their
rights, they must take an active role in the new government
o Robespierre gave a speech on Christmas trying to justify suspending rights
as a way of defending them later. The revolutionaries had to get rid of those
still trying to take their rights. He also claimed that the Revolution put
France into a position they had never been in before – they were in
unchartered territory. Because it was unfamiliar, he stated that the people
could not use past events in order to understand what they are doing in the
present or how things will be done in the future.
o No substance
 French Revolution was ultimately a failure
 Proves that a society based on natural rights alone will not
work
o The US is the only exception but provides no proof for
the rest of the world
 Actions AFTER the Revolution are what helped France
 It makes sense in theory, but not in practice
 how did the notion of rights change during the thermidorian and Directory periods of the
French Revolution (after the overthrow of Robespierre)? Did these changes mean that
France’s leaders had abandoned the idea of natural rights? What explains these changes?
o The Thermidorian period (Era after Robespierre)
  Ends the most radical part of the revolution
 Terror
o Carry out mass executions in order to purge
Robespierre supporters
 Also ends most interesting part
 Focuses more on duties and what is logical
 New Calendar
o Starts when they decided to officially change the
government
o Based on Nature, not religion like Gregorian calendar
 The coup was primarily a reassertion of the rights of the
National Convention against the Committee of Public Safety
and of the nation against the Paris Commune. It was followed
by the disarming of the committee, the emptying of the prisons,
and the purging of Jacobin clubs. Social and political life
became freer, more extravagant, and more personally corrupt.
There was a splurge of fashion and a conspicuous consumption
of bourgeois wealth, while the poor suffered from harsh
economic conditions.
 Changes moves away natural rights. They were tired of the way
Robespierre was running things and wanted their rights, so they
executed Robespierre after he made a speech pointing fingers
o Directory Period
 Documents from the Directory after Robespierre is removed
o Felt Laws made during Reign of Terror were unfair
o More constitutional government
 Differences in new Constitution and Declaration compared to earlier
parts of Revolution
 Has strong emphasis on protection of property
o Countered Maximum and Propertier Laws
 Rights and Duties
o You were no longer told just because you are human
and live here that you have rights
o Only have those rights if you do things in returns
o Have obligations
 That has always been obvious, but now spelling
it out since people during radical phase were
only getting things for themselves
o Examples
  Obey Laws
 Pay Taxes
 No one a good citizen unless you are a
respectable person in your personal life
 Earlier declaration left it up for people to
decide
o Connection to UHDR
 Also emphasizes family and private life
 Right to marry
 Right to happiness
o Article 25  have a right to
welfare of he and his family
 Seems to presuppose that people come in families
and not as isolated individuals
 American Bill of Right, French
Declarations of 1789, and 1793
o All written in terms of isolated
individuals who may or may not
be in a family
 Assumes everyone will be a part of a
family and families
o Families must be protected by
rights
 Directory opens the door to protecting families
 what is the relevance of the early history of Australia to the themes of this course? Is
there any connection between the creation of Australia as a penal colony and other
instances of “unfreedom” we have studied in this course, such as Wedgwood’s factory
rules and the laws passed during the French Reign of Terror?
o Penal Colony complete opposite of how one might set up a democracy and
freedom
 Meant as a jail since there was no room in England
 Upper class felt that they could not be rehabilitated. Needed to
be separated from society (Australia) since America was no
longer an option
 Male and Female convicts
 Rough life
 Not confined to bars, but manual labor and harsh punishments
 Soldiers forced to go and act as security and the higher
military officer given land and convicts to work it
 Basically slaves in order to make profit for England only
 o Connection to Wedgewood
 Much of how the penal colony was set up like Wedgewood’s idea of a
factory
 Convicts with certain skills were put to work in those jobs
(Specialist in Wedgewood’s factory system)
o If educated, they had admin jobs
o Forced into jobs that was needed
 DISCIPLINE
o Workers held to high standards and severely punished
until they were trained
o Connection to Laws French Reign of Terror
 All rights were stripped from French citizens just as all the rights
were stripped from the convicts
 the black insurgents in the Haitian Revolution never issued a manifesto or declaration of
their principles. Judging from their behavior, what concept of rights (if any) did they
have? How did it compare to the ideas expressed in the French Declaration of Rights?
o Representation of colonies
 States General
 Demand that they should have representation
 Make argument how they are most useful to the country
o Quote Article 6 of Declaration of Rights of Man
 Not forced to obey a law they are not
represented in making
 15 May 1791
 Free people of color gain seats in
assembly
 Should be able to make their own government and rule
themselves
o Neglect to talk about representing the blacks which is
called out by Meribo
o If they representation based on the number of slaves
they have, why don’t they do the same in France
o Free people of color
 Raimond and Oge do not bring up the issue of abolishing slavery
 How do Revolutionaries give them their rights?
 Did not have a very good answer
 Not an issue until 8 March 1790
o Free men could vote
  Left race ambiguous for the colonists to decide, so they don’t
cause an uprising
 Gregoire asked if free people of color were included
 Barnave convinces him that it is not necessary to specify
 Oge goes to France to lobby for their right to vote
 What was their arguments
 Raimond
 Should have equal rights as the whites because they were
usually raised like the white and had no different qualities
about them
o Impact of French Revolution
 be prepared to discuss the relationship between the 1801 and 1805 Haitian constitutions
and the ideas of liberty and equality articulated during the French Revolution. What
explains the differences between the Haitian documents and those issued by the French
revolutionaries?
o 1801 Constitution
 Established Toussaint as Governor for Life and gave him the right to
select his successor (future governors would be limited to 5 year
terms.) Provided a mechanism to overthrow any governor avoiding
election. Abolished slavery and racial restrictions on employment, but
upheld fermage, leases, and restrictions on movement. Estates
abandoned by their owners during the revolution to be held and
operated in trust by the government, but not nationalized. Banned
free assembly, all religions other than Catholicism, divorce, and any
imports in competition with local manufactures.
o 1805 Constitution
 First constitution of Haiti proper. Created a non-hereditary empire
under Dessalines. This constitution provided for freedom of religion,
banned most whites from citizenship or owning land in Haiti, and
declared all citizens "black" in an effort to end racism based on
lightness of skin.
o Declaration of the Rights of Man 1789
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and
_of_the_Citizen
 what are the distinctive characteristics of the demands for liberty and equality drawn up
by the Brazilian conspirators of the 1790s and by Simon Bolivar?
o Government
 Republican ideas from US
 Should be nationally independent
 Hereditary Senate
 
Modeled after England
o Used to being winners
o Long lasting
o Against Slavery

 were the Russian Decembrists still expressing ideas about rights similar to those
formulated in the American and French Revolutions? If not, what were the major
differences between their ideas and those of their predecessors?
o Demands are different than the typical Revolutions we saw
 Elite military leaders that spread propaganda through their troops
 other movements were more middle to low class citizens
 No talk of Natural Rights
 Talk about rights of society and nations
o Challenges claim to property
o Security and prosperity
 Material benefits to the NATION, not individual
 What makes the country powerful and
succesful
 People complete obligations to state before they
get rights
 Believed that you could not get rid of all rights at once and rebuild
 Eliminate and change things one by one
o Wasn’t favored because serfs were last on the list if at
all
 Religion
 Used by Decembrists because over 90% of the population was
illiterate, but understood religious terms
o French Revolution threw out the Church
 NOT EFFECTIVE
 French and American were successful
 what criticisms have the representatives of Islamic countries, the Chinese government,
and Professor Posner made of the present-day notion of human rights? Is there any merit
to these criticisms?
o Islamic Countries
 Violates Sharia Law
 Claims the Declaration was a secular understanding of Judeo-
Christian tradition which could not be implemented by
Muslims
 Solution
 o Supported Cairo DHRI
 freedom and right to a dignified life in
accordance with the Islamic Shari'ah without
any discrimination on grounds of "race, colour,
language, sex, religious belief, political
affiliation, social status or other considerations
 Western Bias
 I feel there is merit
 Many of the rights stated are seen in Westernized governments
or go against Muslim culture
o China
 affirms that human rights are a matter of its internal affairs and
defends its record on civil and political rights on the grounds that its
critics violate the Declaration's articles guaranteeing freedom from
racial discrimination and other social injustices
 Merit?
 NO
o Professor Posner
