Instructor: John Williams (719) 389-6525 | [email protected] | 215C Palmer Hall
Colorado College Intensive English Institute
History 110: Encountering the Past
Modernity and Identity on the Pacific Rim
History 110: Encountering the Past
An introduction to history through the study of a special subject in depth. Emphasis on the ways in which
historians find and interpret the materials of the past. For students who do not complete the West in
Time requirement in the History Department, a gateway to the History major. Topics designated
according to the specialties of the faculty.
Modernity and Identity on the Pacific Rim
Considers the different formulations of modernity and collective identity in societies on the Pacific Rim
from the late nineteenth through the twentieth centuries, with special emphasis on the nations of China,
the United States, and Japan.
Available for Purchase in the Bookstore:
Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2012.
Soseki Natsume. Kokoro. Washington, DC: Regnery, 1957.
Other course readings will be supplied by the instructor.
Assessment:
Class Participation: 20 pts.
Response Papers: 4 x 5 = 20 pts.
Short Essays: 2 x 15 = 30 pts.
Final Essay: 30 pts.
Class Participation:
Students will attend class prepared to discuss the assigned readings with the instructor and classmates.
Participation grades reflect the quality, not necessarily quantity, of the student’s contributions to class
discussion. Class begins 9:30 am. Laptops are welcome for note-taking; web-surfing or downloading will
affect participation grades substantially.
Response Papers:
Once a week students will turn in a 1-2 page paper based on the previous night’s reading. The paper will
respond to an issue or idea the reading presents, as well as make an argument about the relationship
between primary and secondary source readings.
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Instructor: John Williams (719) 389-6525 | [email protected] | 215C Palmer Hall
Short Essays:
The first two Fridays of the block, students will receive a set of essay prompts. Each student will choose
one (and only one) on which to write an essay relating the week’s readings, due the next Monday when
class begins. The first week’s essay will be 3-5 pages in length. The second week’s essay will be 4-6 pages
in length. Unlike the response papers, the short essays will seek to make an historical argument relating
to the course theme by integrating as many of the previous weeks readings as possible – and in
particular the primary source readings.
One of these papers may be revised and submitted the last Monday of the block. The grade the
revised version receives will replace the first grade.
Final Essay:
On the last Tuesday of the block, students will receive a final essay prompt at the end of class.
Completed final essays will be due at noon the next day.
Course Schedule
WEEK ONE:
Monday, Day 1: Course Introduction: What is Nation? What is Modernity? What is Identity?
Assigned readings will be completed in class.
Tuesday, Day 2: Modernity & Identity in the 19th Century
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Carol Chin, Modernity and Identity in the United States and East Asia, 1895-1919 (2013),
excerpt.
Wednesday, Day 3: The Frontier & Westward Expansion
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Gary Nash, “The Hidden History of Mestizo America,” Journal of American History 82, no. 3
(1995), 941-64.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (excerpt). 1893.
Thursday, Day 4: Slavery, Race and Civil Rights
Secondary Source Reading:
1. C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955 rep. 2002), excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. “Plessy vs. Ferguson” (1896)
3. “Brown vs. Board of Education” (1954)
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Instructor: John Williams (719) 389-6525 | [email protected] | 215C Palmer Hall
4. Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the
1980s (2011), excerpts.
5. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have A Dream” (1963).
Friday, Day 5: The Cold War Era
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Steven J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War, 2nd edition (1996), excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), “Farewell Address” (1961)
3. Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks at the University of Michigan” (1964)
WEEK TWO:
Monday, Day 6: Nation, Identity and Modernity in Popular Culture: The United States
Due when class begins: 3-5 page essay on prompt to be distributed Friday
In Class: Film
Joe Johnston (b. 1950), dir., Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Tuesday, Day 7: The Meiji Revolution
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Carol Chin, Modernity and Identity in the United States and East Asia, 1895-1919 (2013),
excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Fukuzawa Yukichi 福澤 諭吉 (1835-1901), Outline of a Theory of Civilization (1875), excerpt.
3. The Imperial Rescript on Education (1893).
Wednesday, Day 8: Literature and Modernity
Primary Source Reading:
1. Natsume Sōseki 夏目 漱石 (1867-1916), Kokoro こゝろ. 1914.
Thursday, Day 9: Identity, Empire and War
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Andrew Gordon, The Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (2009),
excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Tanizaki Junichiro 谷崎 潤一郎 (1886-1965), In Praise of Shadows (1933), excerpt.
3. Ministry of Education, “The Fundamentals of our National Polity” 国体の本義 (1937).
4. Watsuji Tetsurō 和辻 哲郎 (1889-1960), “The Way of the Japanese Subject” 臣民の道 (1941).
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Instructor: John Williams (719) 389-6525 | [email protected] | 215C Palmer Hall
Friday, Day 10: Postwar Japan
Secondary Source Reading:
1. John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (1999), excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Mishima Yukio 三島 由紀夫 (1925-1970), “The National Characteristics of Japanese Culture,”
excerpt.
3. Ōe Kenzaburō 大江 健三郎 (b. 1935), “Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself,” excerpt.
4. Maruyama Masao 丸山 眞男 (1914-1996), “The Logic and Psychology of Ultranationalism,”
excerpt.
WEEK THREE:
Monday, Day 11: Nation, Identity and Modernity in Popular Culture: Japan
Due when class begins: 4-6 page essay on prompt to be distributed Friday
In Class: Film
Honda Ichirō 本多 猪四郎 (1911-1993), dir., Gojira ゴジラ (1954)
Tuesday, Day 12: China’s 19th Century Crisis
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Carol Chin, Modernity and Identity in the United States and East Asia, 1895-1919 (2013),
excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Kang Youwei 康有為 (1858-1927), excerpts from various writings.
3. Tan Sitong 譚嗣同 (1865-1898), excerpt from various writings.
4. Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929), New People, excerpt.
The Republican Revolution
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, 2nd ed. (1999), excerpt.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Tsou Jung [Zou Rong] 鄒容 (1885-1905), The Revolutionary Army 革命軍 (1903), excerpt.
3. The Tongmenghui 同盟會 Revolutionary Proclamation (1907).
Wednesday, Day 13: The New Culture Movement
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Wen-hsin Yeh, The Alienated Academy: Culture and Politics in Republican China, 1919-1937
(2000), excerpt.
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Instructor: John Williams (719) 389-6525 | [email protected] | 215C Palmer Hall
Primary Source Reading:
2. Chen Duxiu 陳獨秀 (1878-1942), “The Way of Confucius and Modern Life” (1916)
3. _____, “Call to Youth” (1919)
4. _____, “Autobiography” (1938).
Thursday, Day 14: Shanghai and Chinese Modernity
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern (1999), excerpts.
Primary Source Reading:
2. Eileen Chang 張愛玲 (Zhang Ailing, 1920-1995), Written on Water (1945), excerpts.
Friday, Day 15: Iterations of New China
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Ruth Rogaski, "Nature, Annihilation and Modernity," Journal of Asian Studies 61.2 (May 2002),
381-410.
WEEK FOUR:
Monday, Day 16: Nation, Identity and Modernity in Popular Culture: China
Work Day: no assigned reading
Use the weekend and this day to catch up on unfinished reading, revise one of your earlier papers, and
prepare Tuesday’s readings.
In Class: Film
Ronny Yu 于仁泰 (b. 1960), dir., Huo Yuanjia 霍元甲 (Fearless)(2006).
Tuesday, Day 17: Korea
Secondary Source Reading:
1. Shin Gi-Wook, Ethnic Nationalism in Korea (2006), excerpt.
2. The May 18 History Compilation Committee of Gwangju, The May 18 Gwangju Democratic
Uprising (2012), 114-119.
Primary Source Reading:
1. Choe Nam-seon 최남선; 崔南善 (1890-1957) et al., Declaration of Independence (1919).
2. Kim Ku 김구; 金九 (1876-1949), “My Wish” (1947).
3. Park Chung-hee 박정희 ; 朴正熙 (1917-1979), “To Build A Nation” (1970), excerpt.
4. Kim Il Sung 김일성; 金日成 (1912-1994), “On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and
Establishing Juch’e in Ideological Work” (1955), excerpt.
Wednesday, Day 18:
Final Essay Due
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Instructor: John Williams (719) 389-6525 | [email protected] | 215C Palmer Hall
Grading Principles
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This course is not graded on a curve.
Effort counts, on written assignments as well as participation.
Completed work with effort ensures a passing grade.
Only consistently outstanding work merits an A.
On a given assignment, for participation, or in general, A = outstanding; A- = excellent; B+ = very
good; B = good to average; B- = below average; C+ = above average for a passing grade; C = a
passing grade; C- = below average for a passing grade; CR - NC = incomplete work to varying
extent. (A+ = ranks among 1-2% of all students taught in all courses)
Block grades are calculated on a 100 point scale. A+ = 98-100; A = 93-97; A- = 90-92; B+ = 87-89;
B = 83-86; B- = 82-80; C+ = 77-79; C = 73-76; C- 70-72; CR = 56-69; NC = 55 or less.
Letter grades are charted to the middle of the band on subsequently reduced grading scales. For
example, on a 20-point scale, 20 = A+; A = 19; A- = 18.3; B+ = 17.7; B = 17; B- 16.3; C+ = 15.7; C =
15; C- = 14.3, etc.
The default participation grade for speaking in class is a B (See #5).
Grades are altered after filing only in cases of mathematical error.
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