HIST 375-01, Modern Japan, Spring 2000

This syllabus ws submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructorThis course examines Japan’s transition from a closed, traditional society through the processes of modernization, imperial expansion, defeat and occupation to its postwar recovery and emergence as a global economic power. We will investigate the values that have informed Japanese society during this tumultuous era of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and attempt to analyze those changes which have affected traditional values as Japan has transformed itself into a modern society and member of the global community

HIST 382-01, Modern China, Spring 2001

This syllabus ws submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructorThis course examines China’s transformation from the traditional society of the late imperial period to the revolutionary society of the current era. Beginning with an overview of Chinese traditional society prior to the nineteenth century, we will then explore the intrusion of Western powers and the collapse of China’s imperial system. This will lead us to the study of China’s attempts at integration and stabilization in the face of regional warlordism and foreign invasion. Finally, an important focus will be China’s civil war and the history of the People’s Republic to the present day. Throughout the course we will consider significant patterns of tradition and change that have shaped events in the history of the world’s most populous nation

The Kök Türk Empires

The people who called themselves Türk (Chinese Tujue突厥) appear in historical records only a few years before they overthrow their political masters in the middle of the 6th century CE and create a powerful steppe empire that stretched at its height from Manchuria to the Black Sea. These early Türks are sometimes called “Kök” (Old Turkic “Blue,” referring particularly to the color of the sky but also indicating the East) Türks to distinguish them from other peoples who spoke Turkic languages and called themselves by various names, some of which included the term Türk. The Kök Türks dominated much of Inner Asia for most of the period from the mid-6th to the mid-8th centuries; during that era their polity waxed and waned in strength and did not always enjoy political unity. Nevertheless, they exercised authority throughout much of Eurasia for some two centuries; Türk military, diplomatic, and economic interactions with their neighbors, including the Chinese, Persians, and Byzantines, are an important component of their historical significance. They created Inner Asia’s first native script and first known examples of historiography, and promoted the international exchange of goods and ideas on an unprecedented scale. The expansion of Türk power and culture helped shape the Inner Asian world in which the Mongols later established their empire.</p

HIST 250-01, Asian Societies Past and Present, Fall 1998

This syllabus ws submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructorN