Global Asia
HIST-AD 129, Time: MW 2:10-4:50
Credit hours: 4. 7-Week Seminar. No Prerequisites. Satisfies pre-1800 History requirement
David Ludden, Professor of History, del5@nyu.edu
This course is about globalization (a historical process of spatially expansive human mobility and communication, which brings distant peoples closer together, creating more densely connected human spaces, and eventually covers the planet.) Globalization is a long-term process. Its study leads inevitably into Asia (spanning the eastern Mediterranean, Pacific Rim, and Indian Ocean), where expanding mobility and long-distance connectivity have shaped localities, states, economies, societies, and civilizations, since ancient times.
Focusing on globalization reveals Asia in new light. The Asia we are accustomed to studying is formed of fixed territorial enclosures; composed of separate cultural regions cut off from Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Americas. In this course, we see a new Asia, formed by interaction, routes, travels, migrations, and mingling; it is not a closed set of territories, but rather an open space of dynamic spatial mobility, expanding its reach and local impact, over many centuries.
Our standard view of Asia has now become archaic. It depicts Asian spaces that Europeans’ saw when they entered Asian worlds of mobility after Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic, heading for India, but discovered America instead. Direct links to Asia had eluded Europeans since the fall of Rome, but over centuries after 1500, European seaborne empires extended Asian circuits of mobility around the globe. After 1950, Asia became truly global, in the age of national states, jumbo jets, and internet, when static views of Asian space became seriously out of date.
In this course, we study the millennial evolution of Asian worlds of mobility that Europeans sought to join in the fifteenth century; Asia’s spatial expansion in worlds of empire that evolved over six centuries after 1300; and Asia’s contemporary globalization, inside the new world of national states that emerged inside imperial histories in the twentieth century.
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to (1) describe orally and in writing how mobility has shaped social worlds in Asia; (2) effectively use concepts and methodologies for the study of globalization; (3) critically interpret maps and other visual representations of historical information; (4) think critically about the boundaries of national states and Area Studies; and, above all, (5) understand contemporary globalization in Asian perspective.
TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGIES
This course adopts a seminar format. Each class will begin with a summary of the main points in the reading – to clarify how each reading due for that meeting fits into the overall design of the course – and will end with a brief indication of how to focus reading of material for the next meeting. Significant class time will be spent in conversation developing a shared understanding of the reading, and in class presentations, based on student response papers.
We will spend substantial time interpreting maps and using other visual representations of historical information, including videos. We will visit local museums, when appropriate.
Writing assignments enable students to develop their understanding of the reading and class material. Oral presentations enable students to formulate ideas for group discussion and to seek assistance from classmates in resolving challenges they face in their own research and writing.
STUDENT ASSESSMENTS
- Three five-page papers, double spaced, 12-point font. (60% final grade). Paper Topics TBA. See syllabus schedule below.
- Five one-page response papers, based on weekly reading (20% final grade)
- Classroom participation (20% final grade)
Attendance, class readings, and active participation in the classroom discussion are required. Seminars are collaborative and require that each seminar participant contribute to the direction and quality of the conversation, on a regular basis. Students concerned for any reason about their ability to participate in the classroom discussion should contact the professor as early as possible to work out a solution. As part of class participation, students will be asked to lead discussions of course material in class.
Students need to make sure they are familiar with the provisions and obligations of The University Calendar Policy on Religious Holidays, which states, in part: “Students who anticipate being absent because of any religious observance should, whenever possible, notify faculty in advance of such anticipated absence.”
Course Books in NYUAD Bookstore
*Martin B. Steger, Globalization: A Very Short History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. 978-0192803597
Liu Xin Ru and Lynda Norene Shaffer, Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2007. 978-0072843514
*Edward Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History. New York: Oxford University Press; 2014. 0195165934
*Richard H. Davis, Global India circa 100CE: South Asia in Early World History, Ann Arbor, Association for Asian Studies, 2009. 978-0924304590
*Tansen Sen and Victor H. Mair, Traditional China in Asian and World History, Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 2012. 978-0-924304-65-1
*Jeffrey L. Richey, Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism’s History in China, Korea, Japan, and Viet Nam, Ann Arbor, Association for Asian Studies, 2013. 978-0924304736
*Morris Rossabi, The Mongols: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 978-0199840892
Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350, Oxford University Press. 1991. 978-0195067743
C.A.Bayly, Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780-1830, London: Longman, 1989. 978-0582494381
Stephen Dale, The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, Cambridge, 2010. 978-0521691420
Sunil S. Amrith, Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 978-0521727020
*James L. Huffman, Japan and Imperialism, 1853-1945. Ann Arbor, Association for Asian Studies, 2010. 978-0924304613
*William M. Tsutsui, Japanese Popular Culture and Globalization. Ann Arbor, Association for Asian Studies, 2010. 978-0924304620
*Zhiqun Zhu, Understanding East Asia’s Economic “Miracles.” Ann Arbor, Association for Asian Studies, 2009. 978-0924304545
Highly recommended books
On reserve in library:
Jahan Elverskog, Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road, Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013. (264pp)
Ross. E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680, Volume Two. Expansion and Crisis, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Chapter I, The Age of Commerce:1400-1650, pp. 1-61.
Jim Masselos, The Great Empires of Asia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Explorations in Connected History: From the Tagus to the Ganges, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Haneda Masashi, editor, Asian Port Cities, 1600-1800: Local and Foreign Cultural Interactions. Singapore: NUS Press, 2009.
David Ludden, India and South Asia: A Short History, Oxford: Oneworld, 2014
Online:
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
–::- recommendation: read ahead in early weeks -::-
Orientation: Globalization as Long-term Process
Mon. 30 Mar. The Context of Globalization: Space and Time
Steger, Globalization: A Very Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Wed. 1 Apr. Ancient Spaces of Connectivity
Liu and Shaffer, Connections Across Eurasia, 1-106.
Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History, 1-39.
The Mobility of Cultures: The Long First Millenniu
Mon. 6 Apr. Routes and Trajectories
Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History, 40-68.
Liu and Shaffer, Connections Across Eurasia, 107-252.
Wed. 8 Apr. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Confucianism
Davis, Global India (62pp)
Sen and Mair, Traditional China, 1-62.
Richey, Confucius in East Asia, 23-78.
Paper#1: Due 13 Apr: Describe the Asian circulatory system into the age of Mongol expansion.
Mobility and Imperial Territory: The Mongol Integration
Mon. 13 Apr. Conquerors, Rulers, and Travelers
Sen and Mair, Traditional China, 63-78
Rossabi, The Mongols (160 small pages). (and online video)
Wed. 15 Apr. Commercial Networks
Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, 102-351
The Expansion of Imperial Territory
Mon. 20 Apr. Ottomans, Mughals, and Safavids
Dale, The Muslim Empires, 48-246.
Wed. 22 Apr. State-Making
Ravi Palat, “Imperial Expansion in an Eastern Mirror: State-Making and Territorial Expansion in Asia, 1000-1700.” (NYUClasses, 37 pp. typescript)
The Globalizing Power of Oceanic Mobility
Mon. 27 Apr. Routes, Ports, and Social Environments
Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History, 69-97.
Wed. 29 Apr. The Seaborne Expansion of Imperial Space
Bayly, Imperial Meridian (256 pp)
Paper #2. Due 4 May: Describe the process of empire in Asia, circa 1200-1800.
Imperial Power, National Territory, and Global Mobility
Mon. 4 May
David Ludden, “A Quick Guide to the World History of Globalization,” http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dludden/globalization.htm
Wed. 6 May
Amrith, Migration and Diaspora (200pp)
Nations, Globalization, Economics, and Culture
Mon. 11 May
Huffman, Japan and Imperialism, 1853-1945
Tsutsui, Japanese Popular Culture
Wed. 13. May
Zhu, Understanding East Asia’s Economic “Miracles.”
Paper #3. Due 17 May. Describe contemporary globalization as a historical process in one region of Asia.
May 17 – 20. Final Exams.
May 19-21. Historical Space Conference
May 24. Commencement
Additional material for class and student research (On NYU Classes)
Andre Gunder Frank, “The Centrality of Central Asia” (PDF)
Liu, Zin Ru, “The Spread of Buddhism and Islam.” Journal of World History, 22, 1, 2011, 55-78.
Climate History. Medieval Warm Period.
Animated online maps
YouTube Videos on Mongols
Flynn and Giraldez, “Born with a Silver Spoon.”
Lieberman, “Qing Dynasty and Neighbors” (25pp)
Eaton, “Islamic History as World History.” (34pp)
McKeown, “Periodizing Globalization” (12pp)
Parthasarathi Reading. “Global History and Textile Workers”
Nikki Keddie, “The Revolt of Islam.”