Directions: This assignment is for a formal paper, meaning that you should present a complete argument using clean, controlled prose in standard English. The formal requirements are the following:
• Your essay directly answers the prompt (alternately, if you choose to write against the grain, you must explain why you are doing so)
• Your essay will use evidence to explain reasons that substantiate your claim (which should be a historical interpretation in answer to the prompt)
• Sources will be cited using a recognized citation system (MLA, APA are acceptable, Chicago is preferred). Information about proper citation can be found in the writer's guide from EN 101/2 or at the Purdue Online Writing Lab (search Purdue OWL).
• The paper should be 500-700 words in length with minimal grammar, spelling, syntax, or other language errors.
• Papers are due as uploaded Word files by the end of Friday 6/10 (if you need an extension please ask).
Preamble: The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen was a seminal document in the history of Europe and the world. Coming as it did in the wake of the successful American Revolution, the French Revolution took the democratic movement one important step further - recreating social roles and relations according to a rational plan (by comparison, the rhetoric of the American revolution stressed the preservation of social forms that had transformed over time). In other words, the Declaration or Rights of Man is a blueprint for a whole new society.
Prompt: Using copious information from both the primary sources (Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, Candide, perhaps Locke's Second Treatise) and the historical narrative, explain how and why the revolutionaries of 1789 in France came up with these ideas as the plan for a new and better society. Did the Declaration address the correct issues in order to create the kind of world that the revolutionaries wanted?