HIST1000B History for Today

The study of history is at once a science, an art and a craft. Why? In what sense? This course answers this question with concrete case studies. Different types of historical archives will be selected, and ways with which these archives are interpreted will be demonstrated. Major themes of historical study will also be introduced. 

Learning Outcomes

 By the end of the course, students will:
*   Have enhanced awareness and curiosity of professional historical knowledge and its relevance to today’s major issues or personal concerns;
*   Have enhanced judgment to distinguish narratives from facts;
*   Have enhanced ability to practice the craft, science and art of historical research;
*   Have enhanced reading, writing, and oral expression skills.

NOTE: THE SYLLABI IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE 

Lecture 01 (13 Jan): Introduction and Methodology: History in Three Keys
*Paul Cohen, History in Three Keys: the Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth (New York: Columbia University Press., 1997).

Lecture 02 (20 Jan): Material Civilization
*Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), Vol. 1, The Structure of Everyday Life.

Lecture 03 (27 Jan): Socio-economic History
*Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1983).

Lecture 04 (10 Feb): Social and cultural History
*Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1999).
*James Watson, “Standardizing the gods: the promotion of T’ien Hou (‘Empress of Heaven’) along the South China Coast”, in Popular Culture in Late Imperial China eds. David Johnson, Andrew Nathan and Evelyn Rawski (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), pp. 292-324.

Lecture 05 (17 Feb): Hygienic Modernity
*Sun Yat-sen, trans. Pashal M. D’Elia, The Triple Demism of Sun Yat-sen (Wuchang: The Franciscan Press, 1931), 195-199.

Lecture 06 (24 Feb): Work and Discipline
*E.P. Thompson, “Time, work-discipline, and Industrial Capitalism”, Past and Present, No. 38 (Dec., 1967), pp. 56-97.
*Xu Guoqi, Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese Workers in the Great War (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2011).

Lecture 07 (03 Mar): Globalization, Capitalism, Imperialism
Hans van de Ven, Breaking with the Past: the Maritime Customs Service and the Global Origins of Modernity in China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).

Lecture 08 (10 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (I)
*Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: a Curious History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997).

Lecture 09 (17 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (II)

Lecture 10 (24 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (III)

Lecture 11 (31 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (IV)

Lecture 12 (14 Apr): Semester Paper Workshop (V)

Lecture 13 (21 Apr): Semester Paper Workshop (VI) and Conclusion

Semester Paper: 90%

Tutorial: 10%

Semester Paper

*     Minimum 5,000 English words including footnotes.

*     No bibliography is needed.

*     To be submitted to Veriguide on or before 28 April, 2022 (one week after the last lecture). 

*     Delay of submission by one day leads to deduction of 20 marks, for instance, from 90 to 70, and so forth.

*     Topic of the semester paper: A Study of Lancelot Giles’ Diary of the Boxer Riots and of the Siege of the Legation in Peking (June to July 1900)

*There will be two tutorial groups (A and B). Students are expected to join one of the two groups, attend six sessions and make one oral presentation of about 15 minutes based on assigned pages of assigned material. In every tutorial about 4 to 6 students shall be presenting.

*The assigned material for oral presentation is the crucial historical document for the semester paper: Lancelot Giles, ed. Leslie R. Marchant, The Siege of the Peking Legations (Nedlands, W.A.: University of Western Australia Press, 1970), 107-178. 【The pdf of this book is available on Blackboard】. So there is synergy between tutorial and semester paper. Tutorial counts for 10% of the total mark (100). Ten percent might mean little, but is vital to the writing of the semester paper. So do please make an effort to attend all the tutorial sessions.

*Schedule of the two tutorial groups:

 (A1) 2022.01.27 Thursday 10:30-12:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(A2) 2022.02/10 Thursday 10:30-12:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(A3) 2022.02.17 Thursday 10:30-12:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(A4) 2022.02.24 Thursday 10:30-12:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(A5) 2022.03.03 Thursday 10:30-12:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(A6) 2022.03.10 Thursday 10:30-12:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(B1) 2022.01.27 Thursday 12:30-14:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(B2) 2022.02/10 Thursday 12:30-14:15(via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(B3) 2022.02.17 Thursday 12:30-14:15(via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(B4) 2022.02.24 Thursday 12:30-14:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(B5) 2022.03.03 Thursday 12:30-14:15(via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

(B6) 2022.03.10 Thursday 12:30-14:15 (via zoom link, see lecturer’s email for details)

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學生遞交作業時，必須連同已簽署的聲明一併提交，表示他們知道有關政策、規則、指引及程序。

• 如屬小組習作，則所有組員均須簽署聲明；所有組員（不論有否簽署聲明及不論有否直接或間接撰寫有問題的內容）均須負上集體責任及受到懲處。
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未有夾附簽署妥當的聲明的作業，老師將不予批閱。

學生只須提交作業的最終版本。

學生將作業或作業的一部份用於超過一個用途（例如：同時符合兩科的要求）而沒有作出聲明會被視為未有聲明重覆使用作業。學生重覆使用其著作的措辭或某一、二句句子很常見，並可以接受，惟重覆使用全部內容則構成問題。在任何情況下，須先獲得相關老師同意方可提交作業。