Course Description
From 1600 to the present, focusing on shifts in politics, economy, culture, and thought: the fall of the Ming dynasty, the Qing dynasty as an imperial formation, China's 19th-century crisis in world perspective, the failures of late Qing reform, the abortive 1911 revolution, the birthing pains of a Chinese nation-state, Nationalist and Communist visions of Chinese modernity, Mao's permanent socialist revolution, and Deng's bureaucratic capitalist reforms.
Athena Title
Modern China
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This writing-intensive course will emphasize the development of critical thinking skills. In a series of analytical essays, students will critically analyze primary sources in translation. Mid-term and final examinations will test students’ abilities to synthesize their knowledge of the primary source texts into short thematic essays. The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
I. Late Imperial China, 1600-1800 II. The Collapse of the Imperial Order, 1800-1911 III. The Republican Era and Conflicting Modernities, 1911-1949 IV. China under the People's Republic, 1949-2000
Syllabus