Did you know that the guillotine was still being used when the movie Star Wars (1977) was released? Perhaps you were unaware that the French celebrate almost a dozen national holidays every year? Maybe you were uniformed that about a third to a half of basic English words are derived from French words, including but not limited to: surf, view, strive, challenge, pride, and war? As you can see from the above information, the country of France has has a long and convoluted history, during which their advanced military, culture, and holidays have developed greatly.
Imagine being forced into laying down horizontally and looking out towards the masses of people surrounding you. You attempt to look up, but the wooden restraints around your neck are holding you down. The only thing that you can see is the blue sky, and just floating on the edges of your peripheral vision, the slight glint of the incredibly shiny and heavy metal blade hanging about fourteen feet above your head. As you hear the creaking of the rope that holds your life in place, you begin to sweat. This was how death came to King Louis XVI, and many others who fell under the mighty power of the French military. These individuals were executed by one of the most powerful death machines of the day: the infamous guillotine. According to the article, “Off With Their Heads- History of the Guillotine,” it took about a seventieth of a second for the guillotine to fall from its apex to its nadir, (a distance that was an even fourteen feet on average,) while the actual beheading only took a miniscule two hundredths of a second. The rate of speed for a guillotine was approximately twenty one feet a second. Despite this apparent speediness, these executions were apparently far fr...
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...ay because it was the day that Germany surrendered and the war ended. On this day, there is a minute of silence but no military parade. Another holiday that celebrates an ending of a war is the 8th of May or Victoire 1945, which admires the end of World War II and another victory among the French. People attend parades, sing patriotic songs, hang the national flag all over the country, and sometimes remember the people that died serving France in the war. As a result, of these national days that remember wars, the French can pay a tribute to the dead.
In conclusion, the French culture is one that has diversified itself throughout the years, particularly in the areas of: military, culture and holidays. This can be shown through the great legacy and history that the French people have left behind them in the years past, and still continue to produce to this day.
To summarize the book into a few paragraphs doesn't due it the justice it deserves. The beginning details of the French and Ind...
The guillotine made people die a lot faster. Before there was even a guillotine, people would be executed in numerous, horrible ways. In the 5th century with the Romans, “Death was often cruel and included
What is French Folklore? It emcomasses the fables, folkore and fairytales and legends of the people in France.
There are many cumulative events that have influenced Western Civilization reflective in today’s modern world, but the most impactful was the French Revolution. Western Civilization has many historic milestones building to the world as we know it, but none set such broad themes that are felt in our everyday life. Many of these themes have become so ingrained into the way we live that we can’t understand a world without them. For this reason, the effects of the French Revolution molded the westernized world more so than any other event. I consider the French Revolution the catalyst to how our world is shaped today. It’s ideas and events continue to echo through our lives century after century.
Beginning in mid-1789, and lasting until late-1799, the French Revolution vastly changed the nation of France throughout its ten years. From the storming of the Bastille, the ousting of the royal family, the Reign of Terror, and all the way to the Napoleonic period, France changed vastly during this time. But, for the better part of the last 200 years, the effects that the French Revolution had on the nation, have been vigorously debated by historian and other experts. Aspects of debate have focused around how much change the revolution really caused, and the type of change, as well as whether the changes that it brought about should be looked at as positive or negative. Furthermore, many debate whether the Revolutions excesses and shortcomings can be justified by the gains that the revolution brought throughout the country. Over time, historians’ views on these questions have changed continually, leading many to question the different interpretations and theories behind the Revolutions effectiveness at shaping France and the rest of the world.
The Great Cat Massacre with out a doubt has one of the most unusual titles ever created especially for a book about history. Now this unusual title perhaps fits this book better than any other straight - forward title Mr. Darnton could have conjured. You see the text contained in the book isn’t just your standardized, boring, and redundant view of history. Most historical text looks at history from a political standpoint, of which king did what and what were the political effects of a war; then what were the politics like after the war, how were they changed and by which major political figures did the changing. Darnton instead of the old style of viewing history looks at it through the eyes of the people, and not the figures of history. Mr. Darnton’s book The Great Cat Massacre, reexamines French culture during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteen century with the eyes of the peasant’s. Robert Darnton looks at the writings of the peasant’s, and traces them to their origins and compares them to other text of similar origins and text, to create credible accounts or views of particular topics of the people during the era. In this review your going to see a summarization of the book, describing the various subjects of this book. After that I will comment on Mr. Darnton’s on some topics like his organization, writing style, and fairness to his subject material, then discuss the historical importance of the topics that Robert Darnton mentions in his book and give you my personal opinion of the book its self. Next I will discuss with you a battery of topics like why I choose the book, is the book controversial, what was the authors purpose for writing the book, what were some of the major theses, who or what Darnton’s sources were? Lastly I will end this review with a compare and contrast of potentially different views of what Robert Darnton is telling us in his book.
...rtatious, and mainly associated with food. Even the character names such as "Cherie and Lumiere" of "Beauty and the Beast" promotes the romantic nature that the French are stereotyped for. Through the representation of this culture, children would only learn to associate the mentioned stereotypes toward the French and only that. They would not consider other characteristics that the French are also known for, not necessarily the romance and the great French cuisine that we already know of. Having said this, what Disney produced as a harmless depiction of the French, could furthermore fuel of what could be viewed as a limiting representation of the French culture.
The guillotine itself was used prior to the reign of terror and is documented being used after the reign of terror as well (Symbol of Revolution). In light of this it was not the invention of the guillotine that proves Mead’s theory but rather the idea the guillotine championed that proves her ideas. The guillotine was a representation of an idea to show more compassion and humanity in the treatment of all humans. Even those who had been convicted of a serious crime. The French did this by enacting legislation, forcing all executions to be beheadings by guillotine in 1792 (Symbol of Revolution). Guillotines much like gunpowder were initially invented with a noble purpose of relieving the suffering of death. Although one was meant to stop it from happening and the other intended to bring death quicker. The
Unfortunately, he died before experiencing Haiti’s separation from France in 1804. However, along the way of success of both revolutions, a toll occurred on the numerous lives lost. The Reign of Terror in France was created as a way to protect the republic from its internal enemies, but instead 16,000 people were guillotined. Many documents were shown to be describing the execution of the Reign of Terror to be gruesome and wrongful such that J.G. Milligen stated, “The process of execution was also a sad and heartrending spectacle”, in The Revolutionary Tribunal. Milligen continued to describe the vivid scene of the execution, but this was only one event and many others have died in the fall of the Bastille and the attack on the royal palace.
...st powerful symbols of the French Revolution and killed an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people during the Reign of Terror. (Doc F) The guillotine was a sharp, angled blade that killed quickly the most deadly and feared method of invoking fear during the revolution. (Doc F) These methods; however, became too extreme and the deaths of the incident was not justified.
The guillotine was first introduced during the French Revolution by a man named Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin. He is a physician who first was involved with the issues of medicine. On December 1, 1789 he became interested in the idea of capital punishment. He invented the guillotine. It was a contraption used for causing immediate and painless death. It included a falling blade, running between two upright boards of wood and later a basket. Therefore, one may believe that the design of the guillotine helped with executions.
Several other punishments of the medieval period were also rather gruesome. If you were charged with treason, but you were a noble person otherwise, you were to be simply hanged and buried. If you committed murder, and were found guilty of attempted murder, you’d be tied up, near the scene of the crime and left to starve to death. If you were convicted of a successful murder, you’d be hung for a little while, have your hands cut off, and then led to where you’d be executed. Rouges were to be sent to the stockades and whipped, anyone who disturbed the peace were to be continuously du...
Thesis: The French Revolution transformed not only the French society, but also had a huge influence and marked impact on what the purposes of the arts and their expression were now, making profound changes in what they would supposed to be used for, in the form of the Neoclassic works of art that made their appearance prior to the French Revolution, in which very special emphasis is given to the patriotic, the nationalist feeling, together with a strong sense of self-sacrifice that should be present in every person’s heart.
Fashion in France was an always popular, ever changing aspect of society. Fashion changed back then just as rapidly as it does now. This facet of culture blossomed during the nineteenth century. Even still today, fashion plays a huge part in lives of everyone across the world and Paris still stands to be one of the major fashion hubs of the world.
Gofen, Ethel and Reymann, Blandine. Cultures of the World: France. New York: Times Media Private Limited, © 2003.