Studying at York
China: An Economic and Environmental History, 1870-1970 - HIS00167I
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
China was the world's richest and most technologically advanced country in the fourteenth century. But from the eighteenth century it stagnated economically relative to the West, and only from the nineteenth century onwards did China begin its troubled path to modernity. This module looks at two periods of catch-up: 1870 to 1950, when China opened up to global economic forces and sought to reform its political-cum-legal institutions; and 1950 to 1970, when China became communist. This module examines China from economic and environmental perspectives: it traces new sources of economic growth and explores the mixed effects of industrialisation and new forms of agrarian production.
The teaching programme divides into three parts: the first part is introductory, providing background knowledge on China's physical and human geography and introducing approaches that will be new to most students' economic and environmental history; in part two we examine growth under a market system, during a period when China disintegrates politically and large parts of the country are conquered by Japan; in part three we will examine of economic and environmental effects of one of the most extreme social experiments in human history - the Maoist variant of communism.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
- To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
- Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
- Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
- Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching
Module content
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- China: its peoples and its institutions
- China: its ecologies in evolution and revolution
- China: growth, sustained and unsustainable
- From peasants to farmers?
- From handicrafts to factories
- From resilience to vulnerability (to disasters)?
- Revolution: an economy mis-managed?
- Revolution: ecologies ruined?
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).
For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.
Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Lloyd Eastman, Family, Field, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China’s Social and Economic History, 1550-1949 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
- Kent Deng, China’s Political Economy in Modern Times. Changes and Economic Consequences, 1800-2000 (London and New York: Routledge, 2012).
- Judith Shapiro, Mao’s War Against Nature. Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).