U469  Mongolia:  Theocracy, Communism, Democracy
(formerly Mongols of the 20th Century)

Week 1:  Tuesday

  1. Introduction to the class
  2. Introduction to myself
  3. Common (and important) approaches to Mongolian history
    1. As an Third-World country
      1. Suggests focus on economic backwardness, "catching up"
      2. Modern issue: can free-market economics make Mongolia rich?
    2. As a Chinese colony fighting for independence
      1. Suggests focus on national identity, national resistance
      2. Modern issue: can an open Mongolia fend off China?
    3. As a pastoral nomadic society
      1. Suggests focus on how gov’ts try to make nomads settle down
      2. Modern issue: will commercialization destroy the rangeland?
    4. As the first Soviet satellite
      1. Suggests focus on how Soviet ideology controlled the country
      2. Modern issue: what now after Soviet Union is kaput?
    5. As a geopolitical pawn, a "sandwich country"
      1. Suggests focus on how Russia & China (or Japan) fought for power
      2. Modern issue: will Mongolia get their desired "third neighbor"?
    6. As a playground of alien ideologies
      1. Suggests focus on how Buddhism was crushed by Communism
      2. Modern issue: will Mongolia revive Buddhism or be totally Westernized?
    7. Common feature: Mongolia is an example of an international type
  4. Some missing historical issues:
    1. Domestic, non-ideological politics, for example:
      1. How did Mongolia’s government relate to its people?
      2. Who runs Mongolia: where does its elites/upper class come from?
      3. What are Mongolia’s political climate like?
    2. Cultural issues (apart from political ideologies), for example:
      1. How did Mongols respond "off the record" to cultural changes?
      2. How did Mongols reconcile Russian culture with traditional past?
    3. How has demographic change influenced the Mongols?
  5. Finally, history is more than narrative
    1. History as narrative: what happened to whom, how, where, and so on
    2. History as experience: what was it like to live through these events?
    3. History as myth: what does history teach me? What opportunities and dangers does it tell me about?