Compendium (20% of total grade)
This assignment is modeled on the 1868 Compendium of Events (see Week 3), an elaborate one-page chronicle of the previous 15 years told through images, lists of events, and so on.
For this assignment, you will produce your own Compendium of Japans modern period. It will have five parts, each a compendium or unit of its own covering roughly 30 years:
1870-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1990 1990-2020
Format: written document w/images or slides with images/text (see me re other possibilities)
However, I strongly encourage you to do a portion of it every few weeks at the end of each of the 30-year periods (roughly weeks 4, 8, 12, 14-15). Feedback/preliminary grades: For feedback and a preliminary grade, please submit sections of your work to me along the way (roughly weeks 4, 8, or 12).
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Details
The model: The 1868 Compendium has a square for each year (1853-1868). Each square has:
(a) a picture
(b) a list of key events
(c) the price of rice that year*
Your version: the equivalent of a square for each decade:
(a) a picture expressive of key issues or developments of that decade
(b) at least 2 events, terms, or names that are key to understanding that decade
(c) a statistic* that expresses a key change that took place across all three decades
PLUS (d) analytical annotations explaining why you chose each of the above**
* The entries in (a) and (b) are specific to each decade and do not need to relate to each other at all. (C), however, will follow the same statistic/entry across all 3 decades. The 1868 Compendium tracked the price of rice, thereby revealing the extent of the inflation that was so dominant an experience and concern in the 1853-68 period. What development is most meaningful to track across any one 30-year unit? Consider changes/trends in population (aggregate, urban/rural, birth rate, aging); in industry (factory workers, exports, electrification,
automation); in political/social engagement (voting rates, labor disputes, conscription, crime); in social/ cultural/lifestyle developments (literacy rates, education, bathing at home, nuclear
family/extended family households, calories consumed, commutes), and so on.
**DO NOT FORGET** THIS ASSIGNMENT HAS A PART D: This is where you explain
your thinking. Explain the meaning and importance of each image and event/term for its decade; write a paragraph explaining why the statistic or trend you chose was so important to that 30-
year period and what we can learn by tracking it across time in that way.
Note: Presentation should be well-organized, clearly written, grammatical, and proofread.
