East Asian Civilization II, 1600-1895

Undergraduate / Graduate

Second quarter of East Asian civilization sequence covering what are now China, Japan, and Korea from roughly 1600-1895. Major themes include demographic and economic change, plus the social and cultural effects of widespread but uneven commercialization; state formation, rebellion, and political change; migration, urbanization, and territorial expansion; changes in family and gender roles; changes in the "natural" environment, particularly as related to agricultural expansion; changes in religion, ideology, and relationships between "elite" and "popular" culture; and increasingly consequential encounters with Western Europeans, Russians, and Americans, especially in the 19th century. The course aims to treat East Asia as a single, interacting region, rather than as three (or more) sharply separated proto-nations; however, it will also call attention to the enormous diversity both among and within China, Japan, and Korea, treating those differences as constantly evolving, and as something to be explained rather than assumed.