Essential Question
Why did two great revolutions — American and French — end so differently?
This week sets two great revolutions side by side. In America, the founders move from the failed Articles of Confederation to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, producing a Constitution and Bill of Rights and a peaceful first presidency. In France, a revolution that began with high hopes for liberty descends into the Terror and a violent assault on the Church. The week asks why two revolutions sharing Enlightenment language ended so differently.
Liturgical note: EASTERTIDE (April) — the season of new life and resurrection joy. The contrast between the American founding's ordered new beginning and the French Revolution's bloodshed offers a meditation on what kind of 'new life' endures.
Threads at a Glance
The French Revolution (1789); the Terror; the attack on the Church; how it differed from the American founding; the wider Atlantic revolutions (Haiti).
The frontier closes: railroad, cowboys, and the Plains wars
James Madison — Father of the Constitution.
The new United States and revolutionary France; the early US (states + Northwest Territory) and France's new departments.
Neoclassicism in full — Jacques-Louis David ('Oath of the Horatii,' 'Death of Marat'); American neoclassical architecture (Jefferson, the Capitol).
Beethoven — the bridge from Classical to Romantic; music and revolution (the 'Eroica').
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — first US-born saint; founder of Catholic schools.
Responsibility — ordered liberty.
YOUCAT — synthesis of Life in Christ: virtue, grace, and the moral life (Q298-Q311).
Modifiers — misplaced and dangling modifiers.
Compare and contrast essay — the American vs. the French Revolution.
Weekly Writing Assignment
The American and French Revolutions both invoked liberty and the rights of man, yet they ended very differently. Write a compare-and-contrast essay (introduction, body, conclusion) examining BOTH revolutions across three criteria of your choice — for example: their causes, their treatment of religion, their use of violence, their attitude toward existing institutions, or their final results. Use specific evidence for each. Conclude by explaining WHY you think they ended so differently.
The Week
Close the Week
Add each date to your running timeline notebook — one color for World History, another for US History.
Unit Reading · Revolutions & the Modern Age
by Baroness Orczy
A masked Englishman risks everything to rescue innocent aristocrats from the guillotine while playing the fool in society. The original 'secret identity' adventure, set in the Terror of revolutionary France.
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Ingalls family loads the wagon and heads west to build a new home on the open prairie. A beloved classic of homesteading, family, and the hard, hopeful work of the American frontier.
by Willa Cather
Two French missionary priests build the Church across the vast deserts of the American Southwest, among Native and Hispanic peoples. A luminous Catholic classic about faith, friendship, and a lifetime of quiet service.
by Charles Dickens
Dickens's masterpiece of the Revolution, moving from the Reign of Terror to one of the greatest acts of self-sacrifice in all of literature. A natural companion to The Scarlet Pimpernel and a standard high-school classic on the Cardinal Newman Society list.
by Stephen Crane
A young Union soldier marches off dreaming of glory, then flees in terror from his first battle — and must wrestle with shame, fear, and what courage really means. A short, vivid American classic on the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.
by Jane Austen
Sharp, funny, and wise, Austen's beloved novel follows quick-witted Elizabeth Bennet and the proud Mr. Darcy as they misjudge each other and slowly learn better. A perennial high-school classic on the Cardinal Newman Society list.