Fall 1999

Professor Judith Walsh

SUNY-Old Westbury

This course is about the beginnings of the modern world: first, about the modern world's beginnings in the political and industrial revolutions that reshaped early 19th century Europe; second, about the modern world's beginnings in the contacts which took place between Europeans, Asians and Africans as a result of the spread of European imperialism during the 19th century.

Remember this is not a course about Europe or Asia per se. It is a course about the 'convergence' of these cultures in the last century -- about the meetings between peoples of different cultures, about the reactions that these peoples had to each other (and why they had these reactions). Finally it is a course about the changes that took place in European and Asian societies during the 19th century and how those changes brought all of these societies into the modern world.

Charles Dickens, Hard Times , ed. Graham Law, Broadview Literary Texts

[this edition is the only one that contains all assignments.]

Irving Howe, ed. The Portable Kipling [Viking]

Natsume Soseki, Botchan [Kodansha International]

L. S. Stavrianos, A Global History, 7^th edition, , New Jersey: Prentice Hall 1998.

On reserve in library-Xeroxed maps, worksheets, text assignments

1. Reading Questions and class participation: 20% of grade.

This course will run as a seminar with part of each class devoted to the discussion of course readings. Class discussions will be based on reading questions and on summaries of the readings provided by members of the class.

2. Class journals: 20% of grade. Keep a weekly journal of your thoughts and reactions to the readings. Weekly entries should be at least 2 pages in length. Journals should comment on any and all aspects of the reading assignment that strikes you. Journals will be checked each Friday at the beginning of the class and will be graded on timeliness and (overall) on quality. (Late journals can not be credited after a reading has been discussed in class.) Students may be asked to resubmit their journals during the last week of class.

3. Midterm and Final Essays: 60% of grade. Essay questions, based on our weekly discussions, will be set at the mid-term and at the end of the semester. Essays should be written at home and turned in at the due date. Essays should be typed.

Attendance is required. Students with more than three absences may be asked to withdraw from the course.

Sept. 3 Introduction

Part I: 19th Century Europe: the Beginning of the Modern World

(1) The Industrial Revolution

Reading: [recommended: Stavrianos, A Global History, 401-402; 407-425]

Sept. 10 (2) The Effects of Industrialization: then and now

Reading: Andrew Ure, "General Views on Manufacturing Industry" (The Philosophy of Manufactures) in Hard Times, pp. 352-353

Friedrich Engels from "The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844", in Hard Times, pp. 366-371

Ashton, The Industrial Revolution, on reserve

E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, on reserve

Charles Dickens, Hard Times, pp. 41-141

Sept. 17 (3) Dickens' Hard Times in the context of the 19^th Century

Reading: Hard Times, Composition, pp. 7-24; 317-326

Reviews of Hard Times , pp. 327-338

Charles Dickens, "On Strike" reprinted in Hard Times, pp. 372-381

Thomas Carlyle, "Sign of the Times" in Hard Times, pp. 339-345

Charles Dickens, Hard Times, pp. 143-240

(4) Political Revolutions (lecture only)

Sept. 24 (5) Dickens' Hard Times: the novel and its characters

Reading: Charles Dickens, Hard Times, pp. 41-315

Part II: India under the British Raj

Oct. 1 (1) The British in India

Reading: [recommended: Stavrianos: 476-485; 559-560]

(2) British Reactions to Hinduism: Sati

Reading: Walsh, "Sati", on reserve

E.P. Thompson, Suttee, on reserve

Oct. 8 (3) Kipling's India: The English as Sahibs, the English as Rulers

Reading: The Portable Kipling:

"The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes", 3-27

"The Head of the District" [read whole story]

"The White Man's Burden", 602-604

(4) Kipling's India: The English as Indians

Reading: The Portable Kipling

"Without Benefit of Clergy", 68-94

"The Miracle of Purun Bhagat", 125-139

Oct. 15, 22 OCT. 15 MIDTERM ESSAYS DUE

(5) The Indian Response to British Rule: English Educated Indians, the Rise of Nationalism and the Redefinition of Women s Roles

Reading: Sources on British Education, on reserve

Walsh, Growing Up in British India, on reserve

Meredith Borthwick, Changing Roles of Women in Bengal, on reserve

S.N. Banerjea, "Faith in England" on reserve

M.K. Gandhi, Autobiography, on reserve

Oct.15 : AV Film: "Home and the World"

Copyright   2000 Project South Asia and Judith Walsh.  May be copied for educational purposes only.  Commercial use is prohibited without permission of Judith Walsh.