These documents may be letters, journals, diaries and other records the travelers left behind. Topics should privilege the travel of individuals into foreign countries or territories. The research paper must be from 20 to 25 pages. We will be looking at the culture, politics, and society of modern and pre-modern Asia through the lives of individuals as actors in history. The course is organized around the interests and backgrounds of students.
Asian studies is preferred.
The focus is on Asian history through the lens of biography - as the vehicle for examining the role of the individual. The first two-thirds of the semester involves common reading of biographies from China, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia, with short book reviews due after discussion of the relevant historical context and approach of the biographer. Class meetings will be devoted to progress reports and oral presentations. M One of the most revolutionary acts in American history involved the destruction of the institution of slavery in the nineteenth century. This course is an intensive reading and writing seminar on the history of women in the regional West between roughly 1840 and 1940.