Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A survey of the history of China from the end of the eighteenth century, when traditional Chinese society was arguably at its height of development, to the end of the twentieth century when the social revolutions promised by the Communist regime have clearly failed to materialize. The main objectives are to provide students with vocabularies and tools to understand and interpret the political, social and cultural transformations in modern China and to initiate them in the art and techniques of historical analysis. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

China began the nineteenth century controlled by the Manchus, a non-Han ethnic group that led the Qing dynasty. Policies of expansionism and alliances with Central Asian allies increased the territorial scope of Qing control. Crisis loomed, however, in the form of population pressure, internal rebellion, and imperialist aggression. In 1911, the Manchu-led dynasty fell and was replaced by a republic that struggled to address the many challenges facing people in China, and in 1949 the Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China. We will explore the accomplishments and traumas of recent Chinese history, including anti-traditional and feminist movements, Communist revolution, Japanese invasion, civil war, industrialization, famine, the Cultural Revolution, the reform era, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and beyond.

Upon successful completion of the course students should have (1) gained an appreciation of the magnitude of the problems facing people in China during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries; (2) improved their ability to interpret contentious historical debates and moments by constructing arguments based on convincing evidence; (3) become familiar with how historians practice their craft by reading and analyzing primary and secondary sources.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: