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.

Two Important Websites

*   CUHK Blackboard in which all course materials are uploaded:
 https://blackboard.cuhk.edu.hk

*   CUHK History Department Course Website:
 https://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/201920_hist1000b.html

Lecture 01 (14 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 (21 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 (28 Jan): Socio-economic History
*Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1983).

Lecture 04 (04 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.

NO CLASS on 11 Feb: Public holiday – Lunar New Year

Lecture 05 (18 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 (25 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 (04 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 (11 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (I)
*Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: a Curious History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997).

Lecture 09 (18 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (II)

Lecture 10 (25 Mar): Semester Paper Workshop (III)

NO CLASS on 01 Apr: Public holiday – Easter

Lecture 11 (08 Apr): Semester Paper Workshop (IV)

Lecture 12 (15 Apr): Semester Paper Workshop (V)

Lecture 13 (22 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 29 April, 2021 (one week after the last lecture). 
* Delay of submission by one day leads to deduction of 10 marks, for instance, from 90 to 80, and so forth.
* Topic of the semester paper: The Diary of Thomas Turner (1729-1793): a Study

* There will be SIX to Eight zoom tutorial sessions beginning in the evening on 2021.02.01 (1 February 2021 Monday). Students are expected to attend all of them and make one oral presentation of about 10 minutes. In every tutorial about 6 students shall be presenting.

* The material for oral presentation is: Thomas Turner, selected by R.W. Blencowe and M.A. Lower, The Diary of a Georgian Shopkeeper (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979). Every student takes turn to present assigned pages of the diary.

* This diary is exactly the crucial historical document for the semester paper. 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.

* In the past, tutorials are held on a weekly basis. Tutorial grouping, tutorial room booking, and oral presentation schedule combine together to create a lot of troubles for all parties concerned.

*Now, zoom gives us a better solution. There will be only one tutorial group, and tutorials are held for six to eight consecutive nights so as to minimize schedule conflict with other courses and to finish the tutorials as soon as possible.

Tutorial Schedule:
Tutorial 1: 2021.02.01 Monday 1830-2015
Tutorial 2: 2021.02.02 Tuesday 1830-2015
Tutorial 3: 2021.02.03 Wednesday 1830-2015
Tutorial 4: 2021.02.04 Thursday 1830-2015
Tutorial 5: 2021.02.06 Saturday 1830-2015
Tutorial 6: 2021.02.08 Monday 1830-2015
*Tutorial 7: 2021.02.09 Tuesday 1830-2015 (depending on the actual enrollment number)
*Tutorial 8: 2021.02.10 Wednesday 1830-2015 (depending on the actual enrollment number)

請注意大學有關學術著作誠信的政策和規則，及適用於犯規事例的紀律指引和程序。詳情可瀏覽網址：http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/。

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。
• 如作業以電腦製作、內容以文字為主，並經由大學「維誠」系統 (VeriGuide) 提交者，學生將作業的電子檔案上載到系統後，便會獲得收據，收據上已列明有關聲明。

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。