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The Windy City: Chicago in American History History C-92-48 (Wednesday 1-4) History C-92-58 (Tuesday: 6:30-9:30) Summer Session 1997 Northwestern University Instructor: Amanda Seligman This course has two goals: to familiarize students with the broad outlines of Chicago's history and to consider the relevance of the "Second City" to the history of the United States. Assigned weekly readings guide the students through some of the highlights of the city's past. No short list of readings for an eight-week class, however, can provide complete coverage. A long list might do somewhat better, but Chicago's prominence has encouraged a wealth of academic and popular commentary. Students will complement their survey of Chicago by researching and writing term papers on a single topic. Through the discussion of readings and term papers, the course will ask whether Chicago is a typical or exceptional city, and how its history illuminates the rest of the nation's. This class is structured as a seminar. Each week, half of the class time will be devoted to a discussion by the entire class of the assigned readings. The other half of each meeting will vary. For the first part of the term, we will work with a variety of primary documents and consult with a librarian about resources for the term papers. In the second part of the term, students will make presentations about their projects. The success of a seminar depends in part on participants' arriving prepared to share their ideas and questions with one another. Seminar participants are expected to put their own ideas on the table and listen carefully to those of their colleagues. Disagreements, handled with civility and respect, can offer the class substantial opportunities for clarification and understanding. In order to lay the groundwork for balanced discussion, we will begin most substantive discussions with the "Pass the Watch" procedure. Each participant--including the instructor--will have the floor for a specified amount of time (initially 30 seconds). The person next to the speaker will monitor the passage of time and at the end of the designated period hand the watch to the speaker, who becomes the watch-holder for the next participant. Listeners may not interrupt the speaker, and the speaker must stop when handed the watch. The watch will pass around the class until everyone has had a turn, after which time participants may address each other's comments.
Course grades will be based on participation, a short essay on an assigned question, a term paper, and several short assignments related to the term paper. Due dates for the written assignments are noted in the course schedule, and we will agree in class on the dates of individual presentations. Final grades will be calculated according the following scale: • statement of term paper topic (week 2): 2% • bibliography (week 3): 3% • short paper (week 4): 20% • presentation (weeks 5-8): 5% • term paper (week 8): 50% • participation (throughout): 20% The types of work which will be graded in this course vary substantially, so a few comments about grading standards for each are in order. The three assignments related to the term paper (statement of topic, bibliography, and presentation) are meant to keep you on track and give me a chance to give you feedback more than they are meant to be a way for you to lose points. Because these assignments are designed to keep your term paper moving along, however, you will not receive credit for turning them in late. I will be evaluating them for thoroughness and content, but not by the more exacting criteria reserved for formal prose. The two written assignments, the short paper and the term paper, should be in your best historical prose. Every history paper should 1) have a clear and concise thesis statement that analyzes an idea; 2) develop its argument logically; and 3) use appropriate historical evidence to support its argument. Everything that you include in the paper should support the thesis. If it does not, then save it for a more appropriate occasion. There are several sources available to you for extended discussion of how to write a history paper. First, please feel free to discuss this with me--in person, by email, or on the phone. In addition, the recommended book, A Short Guide to Writing about History, has many suggestions by a historian who is an instructor of expository writing at Harvard. Finally, remember that the assigned readings in this course are all (for better or for worse), models of historical writing. As you read them, pay attention to how they make their arguments as well as what they have to say about Chicago. Late papers will be penalized at the rate two full letter grades per week. This means that a paper that is one week late can receive no grade higher than a C. A paper two weeks late will result in F. Note that in summer session it behooves you to turn papers in on time because the class meeting is the only convenient meeting time. Failure to complete satisfactorily any one assignment--either by omission or through academic dishonesty--may result in failure of the entire course. If you think that you need to turn in a paper late, consult with me first. Students should familiarize themselves with the University policy on academic honesty and document ideas drawn from other people with footnotes (not parenthetical citations). If you are unfamiliar with the proper style for footnotes, see Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Northwestern publishes A Guide to Academic Integrity at Northwestern, which includes examples and discussion of proper and improper citation. The recommended book, A Short Guide to Writing About History also includes a section on footnotes and bibliographies, and a discussion of why historians prefer footnotes to the parenthetical citations that make acceptable references in the social sciences. A letter grade will be assigned to each student's overall participation in the seminar. As with evaluation of written work, the grade derives from the quality rather than the absolute quantity of participation. Signs of excellent participation include listening and responding to others' ideas, preparing for class by completing and thinking about the assignments, and taking a leading role in sharing both insights and questions. Signs of good participation include coming prepared to class and participating in the discussion generated by others. Poor participation includes failure to prepare for class and refusal to join in discussion with other seminar participants. If you must miss class, please let me know about it ahead of time. Excessive or unexplained absences will be reflected by zero credit for the participation grade.
This seminar meets once a week, for three hours at a time. In the short summer session, it is both more difficult and more important for students and the instructor to be able to reach each other outside of class time. There are several ways to get in touch with me: • The best way to reach me and get a quick response is email me at seligman@merle.acns.nwu.edu. I check my email daily. • Call me at home: (847)-864-0518. I am not usually at home during the day, but I do have an answering machine. Let me know how--and when--to reach you at work and at home. Please do not call after 10 pm or before 8 am. • Make an appointment with me. I will be happy to arrange to come to class early or stay late to talk with you. I have an office on the Evanston campus where we can meet on non-class days. • Feel free to ask me how to find me. The reason I am hard to reach during the day is that I frequent the area's libraries to do my research. For example, you might want to visit the Chicago Historical Society's library to research your term paper. I visit CHS often, including on Saturdays, and would be happy to consult with you there. • Fill out a suggestion sheet. Attached to this syllabus is a suggestion sheet, which you may fill out and turn in to me at any time during the course. I welcome feedback on particular reading selections, the seminar meetings, the assignments, or anything else that is on your mind about the course. Books for this course are on sale at the Abbott Hall Required readings from: • Roger Biles, Richard J. Daley • William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis • Karen Sawislak, Smoldering City • Upton Sinclair, The Jungle • William M. Tuttle, Jr., Race Riot Optional books: • Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing About History, 2nd edition • Harold M. Mayer and Richard C. Wade, Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis
I have endeavored to keep the reading assignments under 250 pages per week and to reduce the reading load when papers are due, when you will be writing your term papers. I have chosen these books because they are among the best and most accessible books on Chicago's history, and together they cover many of the major political, social, and economic developments of its past; it is only with great difficulty that I was able to pare the reading down. For those of you who want more to read, I have recommended chapters from Mayer and Wade's Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis, which is an unparalleled visual history of the city's spatial and architectural growth.
Course Schedule Week 1: Introduction • Introduction to the course and to each other • Outline of Chicago history • Work with primary documents • Discuss next week's reading assignment Week 2: Establishing the Metropolis • Required reading: Cronon, Nature's Metropolis pp. xiii-xvii and 1-259. Do not get bogged down in the prologue. • Recommended reading: Mayer and Wade, Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis, chapter 1. • In class: consultation with librarian
Week 3: The Great Fire of 1871 • Required reading: Sawislak, Smoldering City. • Recommended reading: Mayer and Wade, Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis, chapter 2; and the Chicago Historical Society's virtual exhibit "The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory," at http://www.chicagohs.org. This show is CHS's first venture into virtual exhibits. Its curator is Northwestern University Professor Carl Smith.
Week 4: The World's Columbian Exposition • Required reading: Nature's Metropolis, pp. 263-385. Please do not skip the epilogue. It contains clues to the author's intentions in writing this long and complicated book. • Recommended reading: Mayer and Wade, ch. 3.
• Paper guidelines: Your paper should draw on both Nature's Metropolis and Smoldering City. It should not exceed 1000 words (approximately 4 typed pages). It should be typed and double-spaced, with margins adequate for comments. Excessively long papers will not be graded. A shorter paper that makes a coherent answer to the question is welcome. Week 5: An Immigrant's Tour of Chicago • Required reading: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. • Recommended reading: Mayer and Wade, ch. 4 • In class: Presentations Week 6: Race and Labor • Required reading: Tuttle, Race Riot. • Recommended reading: Mayer and Wade, ch. 5 • If you would like for me to review an outline or draft of your paper, this is the last time to get it to me in time for me to return it to you. • In class: Presentations Week 7: The Rise of Mayor Daley • Required reading: Biles, Richard J. Daley, pp. 3-118. • optional reading: Mayer and Wade, ch. 6. • In class: Presentations Week 8: Daley's Fall • Required reading: Biles, Richard J. Daley, pp. 119-241. • In class: presentations
The term paper assigned in this class is intended to give you an opportunity to study in depth any topic related to Chicago's history that interests you. During the term, you will write a paper on the topic and make a presentation to your classmates about what you have learned. Your paper may be on any topic in Chicago history. Your final paper, however, must address not only what happened, but also why should we care about it. Historians study the past not only to uncover unknown facts, but also to expand our horizons of understanding and analysis. Your paper should demonstrate attention to the significance of your topic: what does it tell us about Chicago as a city, or about the place of the city in the nation? For the second and third weeks of class, you have brief written assignments due. For the first, you need to tell me what you want to do your paper on (and give me a chance to evaluate its feasibility); for the second, you need to show me that there are enough sources available to you to write a substantive historical paper. Some topics have more books written on them than you will be able to read during the term; others are difficult to research within 8 weeks. Choose carefully. In the second half of the term, you will be allotted approximately 20 minutes of class time to make a presentation on your project. You should plan on using about half of that time to describe your project and about half to field questions and suggestions from your classmates. With the presentation, you have the opportunity both to teach your classmates and instructor something they might not know about, and to get ideas about improvements for the final version. The final paper should be about 15 typed, double-spaced pages long. Be sure include a title page, footnotes, and a bibliography. You may use illustrations if you like. Be sure to give appropriate credit for both picture and text sources. Summer session regulations require me to submit final grades for the course three days after the last class meeting. Your paper is therefore due at the last class meeting. I would like to be able to return your papers to you. Please submit a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your paper. If you have a campus mail address, then of course stamps will not be necessary. You may write your term paper about anything relating to Chicago, subject to my approval. You might want to choose a person, an event, a theme, a locale, an industry, an institution, a group of people, or a time period. The following list is meant to be suggestive rather than comprehensive: People • Jane Addams • Saul Alinsky • Joseph Bernardin • Daniel Burnham • Jane Byrne • Al Capone • Jean Baptiste DuSable • Richard (M. or J.) Daley • Everleigh Sisters • Margaret Haley • Samuel Insull • Jesse Jackson, Sr. • Joseph Medill • William B. Ogden • Potter or Bertha Palmer • Julius Rosenwald • Arthur Rubloff • Sargent Shriver • Harold Washington • Ida B. Wells-Barnett • Frances Willard Events • Chicago Fire of 1871 • Columbian Exposition of 1893 • Civil Rights Movement • Democratic Convention of 1968 • Haymarket • Lights at Wrigley Field • Race Riot of 1919 Locales • specific neighborhoods or community areas in the city • suburban municipalities • other areas: e.g. Black Belt, North Shore, Michigan Avenue, Prairie Avenue, West Side, South Side, Southwest Side Institutions and Organizations • Art Institute • Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council • Black Panther Party • Chicago Board of Trade • Chicago Public Schools • Chicago Symphony Orchestra • Department stores • Hull House • Michael Reese Hospital • Northwestern University • Ravinia • The Woodlawn Organization Miscellaneous • Bungalows • Chicago School of Sociology • Community Organizing • Gentrification • "Neighborhoods" • Parks • Public Housing • Pullman • Skyscrapers • Steel industry • Suburban Development (19th and/or 20th century) • Temperance Movement • Transportation • Unions • Urban Renewal
History C-92-48 and C-92-58 The Windy City: Chicago in American History Summer Session, 1997 Northwestern University Instructor: Amanda Seligman Please use the space below to tell me what is on your mind about this class. You do not have to use your name if you do not want to. Feel free to contact me more directly if you prefer. You may submit this at any time during the course. |
