HISTORY 206

Historical Inquiry on the Silk Road

Summer / Fall Term 2008

Mary E. Frederickson Class Meeting: Tuesdays, 2-4:40 PM

Office Phone: 529-5145

Secretary Phone: 529-5121Office: 242 Upham Hall

E-mail:frederme@muohio.edu

Office Hours: T & Th 1-3 PM, or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will introduce you to the study of history through an examination of the methods andapproaches that historians have used to study the Silk Road, one of the world's oldest and most importanttrade routes that profoundly influenced the history of China, Central Asia and the West. In the course ofinvestigating the Silk Road, we will examine the discipline of history, explore the types of questionshistorians ask, consider a multitude of sources and many different kinds of historical writing. Using the SilkRoad as a site of historical inquiry, you will learn basic research skills, including: how to locate, examineand analyze historical sources, construct a research bibliography, make an historical argument, design aresearch project, evaluate divergent historical interpretations and engage the historiography of a specifictopic.

As we focus on the long history of the Silk Road, we will examine what history actually is and the variousways that it has been transmitted over time. Throughout the course, we will look at different approaches tothe study of the past, examine the use of various types of historical evidence, and reflect on the process ofinterpretation. Finally, as we explore Silk Road studies from both historical and interdisciplinaryperspectives, we will consider how generations of scholars documenting the same places in differenthistorical periods have generated their own questions and drawn their own conclusions.

The course revolves around learning the research and writing skills involved in the historian's craft.Through a series of assignments, you will become adept at examining primary and secondary sources,sorting evidence, drafting research proposals, and writing historical works of your own design.

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Class Attendance: Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:40 PM• Participation in class discussions.• A series of short writing assignments.• A 10 page research paper on the Silk Road.

FORMAT

The class will follow a discussion format. It will be conducted as a seminar, and you are expected to cometo class having done the reading, prepared to participate in our discussion. Written assignments are duethe day listed in the syllabus, for our conversation will often focus on the work you have prepared for class.Your grade will reflect your engagement with both written assignments and class discussion. Yourattendance is essential and students who miss class will not pass the course.

REQUIRED BOOKS

• Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft, 1992• Anthony Brundage, Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research, 2002• Andrew McMichael, History on the Web: Using and Evaluating the Internet , 2005• Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of

Chinese Central Asia, 1996• William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students. 2004• Alexandra Tolstoy, The Last Secrets of the Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Marco Polo by Horse and

Camel, 2003• Susan Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road, 2001• Frances Wood, The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, 2004

GRADING

• 20% - Class Participation• 40% - Short Writing Assignments

o 5% primary source evaluationo 5% bibliographyo 5% Foreign Devils response papero 5% prospectuso 5% website analysiso 5% travel accountso 5% Gertrude Bell papero 5% response to Last Secrets

• 20% - Final Paper• 20% - Final Exam

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WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS

• WEEK 1 Introduction to the Course / Orientation to the Silk Road

• WEEK 2 What is history? What do historians do?

• WEEK 3 Reading and writing history on the Silk Road

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• WEEK 4 Introduction to the archives: Analyzing primary sources.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Close reading of three primary sources from the InternationalDunhuang Project, available on the web at http://idp.bl.uk/ Assignment due in class next week.

• WEEK 5 Exploring the library: the search for secondary sources.

READ: Brundage, Going to the Sources, chapters 4-5

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Prepare a bibliography on one aspect of Silk Road History. Due inclass next week. The topic you select will be the subject of your final paper.

• WEEK 6 Making history: from research to argument.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Write a 1-2 page response paper to Foreign Devils. What is the focusof Hopkirk's research? What is his argument? What are your observations about how the book isconstructed? What questions did the text leave you with? Due in class next week.

• WEEK 7 Conceptualizing a paper and writing a prospectus.

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WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Write a prospectus on the Silk Road topic you have selected. (2pages). Assignment due in class next week.

• WEEK 8 History on the web: exploring the Silk Road via cyberspace.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Evaluate one of the following Silk Road websites (3 pages). Focuson conceptualization, historical authority, design and accessibility. Who is the targetaudience? How can you validate the reliability of the site? What are the advantages anddisadvantages of presenting Silk Road materials on the web? Assignment due in class nextweek.

• WEEK 9 Historic Preservation on the Silk Road

Exploring Bamiyan: Professor Tarzi's Survey and Excavation Archaeological Mission, 2003,article by Zemaryalai Tarzi, The Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg,

http://silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/december/bamiyan.htm

• WEEK 10 Travelogues as History: Writers on the Silk Road Examine the written works of one of the following four long distance travelers on the Silk Road:

Xuanzang (Hsuan Tsang), 629-645 CE: perhaps the most famous Chinese traveler of the SilkRoad. Xuanzang, like Fa Xian, was a Buddhist monk in search of the true texts of Buddhism. Histravels to India brought him into many adventures. These adventures were recorded and became abasic document of Chinese foreign policy for many centuries to come. Later his story became thebasis for one of the most famous of Chinese novels, Journey to the West.

Marco Polo, 1244-1323 CE: the record written by this most famous European traveler of the SilkRoad formed much of Europe’s impression of East Asia for most of the last millennium

Gertrude Bell, 1868-1926 CE, was an archaeologist, mountaineer, diplomat of the Middle East,and world traveler. Bell received a first class degree in Modern History from Oxford University atthe age of 20, the first woman to do so. She traveled extensively in the Middle East in the yearsthat followed, and completed two trips around the world (1897-1898 and 1902-1903).

Aurel Stein, 1900-1914 CE: Stein was one of the famous archaeologists and treasure seekerswho reopened the Silk Road in the imaginations of the Euro-Americans in the 20th century. Hisaccounts allow us to see the remains of the days of glory as well as the gritty but real continuationof trade and travel across the old route.

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WRITING ASSIGNMENT: As you read about the traveler you have selected, explore his or herwritten travel accounts and then prepare a 2-3 page paper analyzing the traveler's journey.Describe the political/historical context of the Silk Road in the traveler's time. What was themotivation for the journey? Mode of travel? Barrier to movement? Was this traveler open tocultural exchange? What is the point of view in the traveler's written account? Would you use thetexts created by this traveler in writing an historical analysis of the Silk Road? Why, or why not?What do these texts reveal? What do they conceal?

• WEEK 11 Biographical Histories of the Silk Road

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Write a brief (3 page) biography of Silk Road traveler Gertrude Bellbased on secondary source materials on the Silk Road and on the primary sources available inBell's extensive correspondence and diaries, available from the Gertrude Bell Project, online at:http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/ Assignment due in class next week.

• WEEK 12 Visual History: Art of the Silk Road

Explore the Silk Road Seattle Virtual Art Exhibit and prepare a brief (5-8 minute) in-classpresentation on one artifact or aspect of Silk Road art, located in a specitic time and place.

Silk Road Seattle Virtual Art Exhibit

• WEEK 13 Music: Cultural Exchange on the Silk Road

How can historians use music as text?

Explore the Silk Road Project organized by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who wrote in May, 2002: "It was only18 months ago that we took the leap of faith, gathering musicians from all corners of the world—Azerbaijan toChina, Iran to Uzbekistan—at the first Silk Road Project workshop at Tanglewood. Since that time,momentum at the Silk Road Project has been building—lately we’ve been able to gauge this movement in avery tangible fashion on an almost weekly basis". He adds: "By listening to and learning from the voicesof an authentic musical tradition, we become increasingly able to advocate for the worlds theyrepresent." Come to class prepared to discuss the question: How can historians use music astext?

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• WEEK 14 Using History to Revive Contemporary Culture on the Silk Road

Working in three groups, analyze one of the following in terms of the relationship betweenhistory and contemporary culture.

1. The Issyk-Kul Declaration on Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations in Eurasia adopted bythe International Conference "Eurasia in the 21st Century – Dialogue of Cultures or Conflict ofCivilizations?"

http://www.unesco.kg/en/forum/declaration.html

2. The section on "Art, Culture and Science" in the Turkish publication NEWSPOT

http://www.byegm.gov.tr/YAYINLARIMIZ/newspot/2005/mar-apr/n24.htm

3. Max L. Stackhouse, "From the Old Silk Road to Contemporary Globalization"

http://www.isanet.org/archive/stackhouse.htm

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: prepare a one page response paper on Last Secrets of the Silk Road.

• WEEK 15

Present in class a brief overview of your final paper. Papers due in class.

Final exam: date and location to be announced.

Mary E. FredericksonDepartment of HistoryMiami University, Oxford, OhioDate: November 15, 2005

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