A Tale of Two Cities Background (Cochrane)

Created by Stacy Kitsis, Arlington High School Librarian. Last updated: January 10, 2012.

Literature is a product of its time, and as readers, so are we. This pathfinder is designed to help you begin to explore the historical context of A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens in 1859, about a period in time from almost 100 years earlier, as well as some revolutions happening today.

See your teacher's complete assignment sheet to know which questions your group should answer. Don't forget to keep track of all sources you use, which will be included in the last slide of your presentation as a works cited page.

Suggested Resources

The following database and web resources will help you get a running start on your revolution research (say that three times fast!). They are meant as a starting place, but you may branch out from there.

Group One: France Before and During the French Revolution

Group Two: The American Revolution

Group Three: Arab Spring: Egypt Today

Group Four: Arab Spring: Libya Today

Group Five: Arab Spring: Tunisia Today

Group Six: England Before and During the French Revolution

Search Tips

Do a keyword search. You may need to search for more than one big idea to get relevant results, for example:

England AND French Revolution

Use synonyms. The first search terms that come to mind may not be the best. For example, you could try:

revolution OR democracy OR protest

Search for key phrases. Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase, such as:

"Arab Spring"

Check your spelling. If at first you don't succeed ... spelling may be to blame!

Citing Sources & Academic Integrity

Happy Reading!

Illustration from A Tale of Two Cities by Fred Barnard (circa 1870). Image scanned by Philip V. Allingham for The Victorian Web.

Questions, comments, compliments, concerns? Email me at skitsis@arlington.k12.ma.us.