In this graduate seminar we will study the history of (primarily) American cities between the late nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries, with additional readings on Europe for comparison.  The class will emphasize three aspects of urban development: the history of work and leisure; race, ethnicity, and gender; and the transformation of the cityscape.

By the third week of the semester, students will have consulted with the instructor and devised a research topic.  Students are encouraged to read ahead in the course syllabus to those weeks that are most pertinent to their areas of interest.  By week four students will hand in a typed, two-page discussion of their subjects and a bibliography, and provide copies so the class can read and critique the topics.

Topics must focus on some aspect of urban history, either from a local, national, or international perspective.  The paper topic may involve original research in primary sources, but a critique of a theory or methodology related to some aspect of urban change is also acceptable. While continuing the course readings and discussions, students will think about their own topics and draw insights from class materials on methodology, conceptual framework, written presentation, and analysis.  In Weeks 8 and 9 students will make oral presentations of their initial ideas and findings and benefit from class discussion of their project.  In week 10 students will hand in a 10-page rough draft.  In weeks 14 and 15 students will make oral presentations of their findings. The final paper is due Friday, December 20, 2002 in my box in the Department of History.

The following required books may be purchased.  All are also available on 2-hour reserve in the Golda Meir Library:

Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen, Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened.
Lawrence Herzog, Where North Meets South.
Greg Hise, Magnetic Los Angeles.
Christopher Mele, Selling the Lower East Side.
Abigail A. Van Slyck, Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920.
Raymond Mohl, ed. The Making of Urban America (2nd ed.) MUA

and several articles/excepts on electronic reserve (e)

Course Requirements:

Course requirements are regular attendance in the seminar and participation in discussions of weekly readings; two oral presentations on research findings, and the completion of a 20-25 pg paper.  My office is 325 Holton.  My office telephone number is 229-3963.  I will hold office hours, Monday and Tuesday 9.30- 11.30 and by appointment.

For documentation requirements see: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html
For documentation of electronic sources see: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite7.html

Week of 9/4: Introduction

Week of 9/11: Industrialization

 “Introduction,” (MUA), 3-13.

Nash, "The Social Evolution of Pre-industrial American cities, 1700-1820," (MUA).

McShane and Tarr, “Centrality of the Horse,” (MUA).

Constructing Chicago, Intro, chaps. 1-2, epilogue (e)

Week of 9/18: Urban Crime

 Lane, Roots of Violence, intro, chapts. 1, 5, 6, epilogue (e)

 Monkonnen, Murder in New York, chapt. 1 (e)

 Adler, “My Mother in Law is to Blame” (e)

 Schneider, Vampires, intro, chapts. 1, 2, conclusion (e)

Week of 9/25: Urban Culture

 Abigail Van Slyck, Free To All, all.

George J. Sánchez, “Music and Mass Culture in Mexican-American Los Angeles,” and Madeleine Powers, “The ‘Poor Man’s Friend’” in Mohl, MUA.

Week of 10/2: Women and the City

Gilfoyle, “Strumpets and Misogynists: Brothel ‘Riots’ and the Transformation of Prostitution in Antebellum New York City,” (MUA)

 Peiss, "Leisure and Labor," (MUA)

Women Adrift, Intro, chaps. 1-3 (e)

“Gender and Landscape” (e)

“Construction and Deconstruction of Women’s Roles in the Urban Landscape” (e)

Week of 10/9: Urban Politics

 Czitrom, “Underworlds and Underdogs,” MUA.

 Miller, “Enemy Within,” MUA.

 Hirsch, “Harold and Dutch,” MUA.

 Biles, “New Deal in Dallas,” MUA.

Week of 10/16: Race and Space

 Alley Life in Washington DC, Preface, chapts. 2, 3 (e)

Eric Margolis, Mining Photographs: Unearthing the Meanings of Historical Photos" (http://courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/mining/)

 Dominic Pacyga, “Chicago’s 1919 Race Riot,”(MUA).

 Mohl, “Blacks and Hispanics in Multicultural America,” (MUA)

Week of 10/23: Oral Presentations.

Week of 10/30: Redevelopment I: Cultural Landscape

 “Vietnamese American Place Making” (e)

 “Disneyfication of the City” (e)

 “Cities are Fostering the Arts as a Way to Save Downtown” (e)

 “Space and Symbols in an Age of Decline” (e)

 The Power of Place, Intro/preface, chap. 1, Epilogue (e)

Week of 11/6: The Rise of Suburbia

 Baxandall and Ewen, Picture Windows, all.

Week of 11/13: Globalization and Urban Change

 Herzog, Where North Meets South, all.

Week of 11/20: Redevelopment II

 Christopher Mele, Selling the Lower East Side, all.

Week of 11/27: The Sunbelt, The Frostbelt, the Borderlands.

 Greg Hise, Magnetic Los Angeles, all.

 “Introduction,” MUA, 211-229.

Week of 12/4: Final Reports.

Week of 12/11: Final reports.