History 345 - China in the 19th Century
Fall
2026
01
3.00
Stephen Platt
TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
UMass Amherst
14025
Herter Hall room 206
platt@history.umass.edu
The rise and spectacular fall of China?s last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), with particular emphasis on the social, economic, intellectual and military forces that transformed China from an empire into a modern nation in the decades leading up to the 1911 Revolution. Our subjects will include secret societies, restoration scholars, gunboat diplomacy, imperial decadence, new-text Confucian visions, clandestine missionaries, treaty-port translators and student revolutionaries. No prior exposure to Chinese history is assumed.
Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.