History 6B: China from 1200 to the Present
Course Description
In this course we consider the conquest dynasties that have left their imprint on Chinese polity from the 13th century onward. We also examine the rise of an urban commercial economy and its connections with an emerging world fashioned by maritime trade. How did “modern China” take shape over the course of the 19th century? We will study issues of modernization, nation-building, social revolution and identity formation. We will also study the biographies of Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong.
Students are required to attend lectures, take part in discussion sessions, and read up to 150 pages each week. Course requirements include a mid-term examination (30%), a final examination (30%), and two short papers (5 pages each, 40% combined) that engage major themes discussed in the course.
Required Readings (Recommended for Purchase)
F. W. Mote, Imperial China, 900-1800. Harvard University Press, 1999.
Morris Rosabi. Khubilai Kahn: His Life and Times. University of California Press,1988.
Ray Huang. 1587: A Year of No Significance. Yale University Press, 1981.
Philip A. Kuhn, Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990).
Marie-Claire Bergere, Sun Yat-sen. (Paperback), Stanford University Press, 2000. 0-8047-3170-5
Wen-hsin Yeh, Provincial Passages: Culture, Space, and the Origins of Chinese Communism. University of California Press, 1996. 0-520-20068-3
Jonathan Spence, Mao Zedong. New York: Penguin, 1999. 0-670-88669-6
Timothy Cheek, Mao Zedong and China’s Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents. (Paperback), Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2002. 0-312-25626-4
Class Reader
