This historiography course will take a different approach than most. Rather than limit ourselves to abstract texts about the theory of history, we will focus on one particular event that has seen a large amount of debates and a large variety of historiographical approaches. This event – the French Revolution of 1789-1815 – will serve as our “experiment.” We will look at how different historians have analyzed those events, starting from the very first people to analyze it, through the major historiographical trends of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and ending with contemporary accounts. The focus will be on the interaction between larger historiographical trends and the historiography of the Revolution, rather than on debates strictly between historians of the Revolution. Readings will usually pair one reading on the French Revolution with another reading that is either theoretical or comparative. Topics will include the following:Traditional narrative approaches, including critical/academic and quasi-hagiographical; State-based approaches; Traditional Marxist and class-based approaches; The influence of the Annales school; social history; Cultural history and the influence of anthropology; The Linguistic Turn; Gender History; Race in history and post-colonial studies; Atlantic history

Syllabus and preliminary reading list:

Lectures

Lecture 1: An Introduction to the French Revolution

Lecture 2: An Introduction to the Historiography of the French Revolution

• Doyle, The Origins of the French Revolution;

Lecture 3: You Are There – stories told at the time

• A collection of primary sources, explanations from contemporary observers and participants.*

Lecture 4: First histories: narratives and characters

• Selections from Michelet, A History of the French Revolution
• Thiers, “The History of the French Revolution”*
• Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution
• Hayden White, Metahistory.

Lecture 5: Saints and Devils

• Taine, The Origins of Contemporary France
• Jaures, “A Socialist History of the French Revolution”*

Lecture 6: Alexis de Tocqueville’s interpretation

• De Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution

Lecture 7: Karl Marx and the French Revolution

• Marx, selections (including selections from the Communist Revolution)
• Cobban, The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution
• Sewell, A Rhetoric of Bourgeois Revolution
• Alphaugh, “A Self-Defining Bourgeoisie”*

Lecture 8: Social History

• Rudé, The Crowd in the French Revolution
• Lefebvre, The Great Fear

Lecture 9: History and the Linguistic Turn

• Canning, “Feminist History after the Linguistic Turn”*
• Furet, Interpreting the French Revolution; Baker, Inventing the French Revolution

Lecture 10: Cultural History

• Geertz, “Notes on a Balinese Cockfight”*
• Hunt, The New Cultural History
• Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution;

Lecture 11: Religious History

• Lincoln, Holy Terrors
• Desan, Reclaiming the Sacred
• Aston, Religion and Revolution in France

Lecture 12: Gender History

• Scott, “Gender: a Useful Category of Historical Analysis”
• Outram, The Body and the French Revolution
• Michelet, “Women, Priests, and the Vendée”

Lecture 13: Atlantic History

• Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolutions
• Games, “Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges and Opportunities”*
• Popkin, You Are All Free.

Remarks:

1. All readings, except those with asterisk, have been already reserved in the University Library.
2. Asterisk refers to the online materials uploaded on the blackboard.

Essays: There will be four short essays (500-750 words) spread over the course of the semester. Each is worth 10% of the final grade.

Tutorials: 20% of the final grade.

Attendance/participation: This will include some in-class activities, as well as attending lectures and participating in discussions. 15% of the final grade. 

Final Take-Home Exam. 25% of the final grade.

The tutorials of HIST2002B Historiography (Advanced) aim at equipping students with different theories, methodologies and approaches in studying history. They are expected to apply them into a case to see if they are capable to manage what they have learnt in lectures. This time our case is the Modern History of China (1911 – present). To put theories into practice, it is suggested that students narrow the theme down to a specific historical event, case, period or region by themselves and explore what they can find by respective approaches.

Tutorials

Date: 5/2, 26/2, 19/3, 2/4 (Thur)

Time: LSK 301

Venue: 08:30-10:15

Content and Assessment (20%)

A.)   Literature Review (1000 words and with Veriguide) (10%)

B.)   Oral Presentation and Discussion (10%)

A.)   Literature Review (10%)
1.) Work individually.
2.) Use the suggested readings to see what you can find concerning respective historical approaches in studying modern China.
3.) Narrow down the general theme to a specific topic, if necessary.
4.) The themes would be randomly assigned to each student.
5.) Email your work and Veriguide receipt to tutor before respective deadlines shown in Part C.

B.)   Oral Presentation and Discussion (10%)
1.) Present for around 10 minutes, with or without any visual assisting tools such as PowerPoint.
2.) Respond to the questions, critiques or any other feedback raised by the audience.
3.) Raise questions, critiques or any other feedback to the presenters.
4.) In case of no heated discussion, a certain number of students will be randomly selected in each tutorial class to ask questions.

C.)   Theme of each tutorial

1. Narrative History of Modern China

• White, Hayden., The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation (Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins University Press, 1987).
• Chang, Iris., The Chinese in America : a Narrative History (New York: Viking, 2003).
• Huang, Yunte., Charlie Chan: the Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010).（有中譯本） 

Deadline: Before 17:00, 2/2. 

2. History of Marxism of Modern China

• Marx, Karl., and Engels, Friedrich., edited and translated by L.M. Findlay, The Communist Manifesto (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2004).
• Dirlik, Arif., Revolution and History: the Origins of Marxist Historiography in China, 1919-1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
• Li, Huaiyin., Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013) Chapters 3-5. （有中譯本）

Deadline: Before 17:00, 23/2.

3. Cultural History of Modern China

• Biersack, Aletta., et al., edited by Lynn Hunt, The New Cultural History: Essays (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).
• Peterson, Willard J., Plaks, Andrew H., Yü, Ying-shih., edited, The Power of Culture: Studies in Chinese Cultural History (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1994), 80-102, 195-303, 321-343.
• Lu, Hanchao., Street Criers: a Cultural History of Chinese Beggars (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2005).（有中譯本）

Deadline: Before 17:00, 16/3.

4. Gender History of Modern China

• Scott, Joan W., “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 5. (Dec., 1986), 1053-1075. 
• Barlow, Tani E., The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), Chapters 1-5.（有中譯本）
• Gilmartin, Christina K., “Gender in the Formation of a Communist Body Politics,” Modern China, 1:1 (1993), 299-329.

Deadline: Before 17:00, 30/3.

See Syllabus.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at here.

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures.

• In the case of group projects, all members of the group should be asked to sign the declaration, each of whom is responsible and liable to disciplinary actions, irrespective of whether he/she has signed the declaration and whether he/she has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the problematic
• For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. 
• Students are fully aware that their work may be investigated by AI content detection software to determine originality.
• Students are fully aware of the AI approach(es) adopted in the course. In the case where some AI tools are allowed, students have made proper acknowledgment and citations as instructed by the course teacher.

Assignments without the properly signed declaration will not be graded by teachers.

Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

The submission of a piece of work, or a part of a piece of work, for more than one purpose (e.g. to satisfy the requirements in two different courses) without declaration to this effect shall be regarded as having committed undeclared multiple submissions. It is common and acceptable to reuse a turn of phrase or a sentence or two from one’s own work; but wholesale reuse is problematic. In any case, agreement from the course teacher(s) concerned should be obtained prior to the submission of the piece of work.

The copyright of the teaching materials, including lecture notes, assignments and examination questions etc., produced by staff members/ teachers of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) belongs to CUHK. Students may download the teaching materials produced by the staff members/ teachers from the Learning Management Systems, e.g. Blackboard adopted by CUHK for their own educational use, but shall not distribute/ share/ copy the materials to a third-party without seeking prior permission from the staff members/ teachers concerned.