| HST 3372 |
Harvey J. Graff |
| Fall, 1996 |
JO 3.104 |
| Mon.-Wed., 9:30-10:45 |
883-2776 |
| Mon., 3:00-5:45 |
Office hours: M, W: 11-12:00
|
|
M, 1:30-2:30; and by appointment |
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN URBAN SOCIETY
The Development of American Urban Society offers a thematic and chronological
overview of the development of cities and urban society in North America from
the early modern era to the present. Toward that end, we examine both the
factors that stimulated and shaped urban development and the impact of urbanization during a critical period in the history of American, and Western,
civilization. Of principal concern are the consequences of urban life and the
configurations of social and spatial forms as they differed by time, place,
class, ethnic group, race, and gender. In part, we seek to understand the
social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of a set of the most
significant changes that have transformed society over the past several
centuries; in part, we seek to understand better the causes of our own contemporary "urban crisis" and the future(s) that lurk beyond it. Thus, we focus
on such topics as urban societies, spatial organization, migration, urban
systems, city life and cultural styles, technology and communications, and the
tensions between forces of centralization and decentralization. Special
attention is given to United States developments, but within a comparative
North American and Western European perspective, and to the period from the
mid-eighteenth through the late-twentieth centuries.
This course fulfills one-half of the Texas State American History Requirement.
Requirements: regular reading, attendance, and class participation; a book
review essay; a final reflections-research essay. Detailed information and
instructions for the two written asssignments will be provided in class.
Reading: For Purchase in the Bookstore & Off-Campus Books (all paperbound):
- David Goldfield and Blaine Brownell, Urban America: A History,<;i> 2nd ed. Hough-
ton, Mifflin, 1990.
- Stephan Thernstrom, Poverty and Progress. Harvard, 1964.
- Sam Bass Warner, Jr., Streetcar Suburbs. Harvard, 1962.
- Judith Smith, Family Connections. SUNY Press, 1985.
- Kenneth Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape. Illinois, 1976.
- Jon Teaford, The Twentieth-Century American City. 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins, 1993.
Recommended for Purchase, but Optional:
- Paul Hohenberg and Lynn Lees, The Making of Urban Europe, 1000-1994. revised
edition. Harvard, 1995.
- Neil Stout, Getting the Most Out of Your U.S. History Course. DC Heath, 1990
Other readings are available at the Reserve Desk of the Library; they are
marked with an * on the syllabus.
Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction: Understanding the City: Past, Present, and Future
- Goldfield and Brownell, Urban America, Introduction.
- Optional:
- *Eric Lampard, "Urbanization and Social Change," in The Historian
and the City, ed. Oscar Handlin and John Borchart (MIT
Press, 1963), 225-247.
- *Roy Lubove, "The Urbanization Process," Journal of the American
Institute of Planners, 33 (1967), 33-39.
- *Theodore Hershberg, "The New Urban History," Journal of Urban
History, 5 (1978), 3-40.
- Film: The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (55 mins.)
Week 2: The European Urban Renaissance
- Optional: Hohenberg and Lees, The Making of Urban Europe, Pts I &
II, pp. 1-171.
Week 3: The Coming of Cities and Towns to North America
- Goldfield and Brownell, Urban America, Chs. 1-2.
- Review essays assigned
Week 4: Eighteenth-Century Cites: Prelude to Modernity
- Goldfield and Brownell, Urban America, Chs. 2-4.
- Optional: *Gary Nash, The Urban Crucible. Harvard, 1979.
Week 5: Urban Visions/Urban Realities
- Goldfield and Brownell, Urban America, Chs. 4-6.
- Slide/Tape: Daughters of Free Men (30 mins).
Week 6: Migration, Economic Development, and City Life
- Stephan Thernstrom, Poverty and Progress.
- *Lynn Lees and John Modell, "The Irish Countryman Urbanized,"
Journal of Urban History, 3 (1977), 391-408.
Week 7: Urban Reform and Urban Institutions
- *Michael B. Katz, "The Origins of Public Education," History of
Education Quarterly, 16 (1976), 381-408.
- *_____, "Origins of the Institutional State," Marxist
Perspectives, 1 (1978), 6-23.
- *John T. Cumbler, "The City and Community," Journal of Urban
History, 3 (1977), 427-442.
- Slide/Tape: The Five Points (30 mins.)
Book Review Essays Due: Mon., Oct. 21
Week 8: Urban Identity, Politics, and Conflict
- Goldfield and Brownell,
- Urban America,
chs. 7-8.
- *Michael Frisch, "The Community Elite and the Emergence of Urban
Politics," in Nineteenth-Century Cities, ed. Stephan
Thernstrom and Richard Sennett (Yale, 1969), 277-296.
- *Sam Bass Warner, Jr., The Private City (Pennsylvania, 1968), 79-98, 99-124.
- *Melvin G. Holli, "Varieties of Urban Reform," in American Urban
History, 2nd ed., ed. Alexander Callow (Oxford, 1973), 249-264.
- Film: The City, 1939 (45 mins.)
Week 9: Family, Classes, and Cultures in the City
- *Mary Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class (Cambridge, 1981), Chs. 4-5.
- *Christine Stansell, "Women, Children, and the Uses of the
Streets: Class and Gender Conflict in New York City, 1850-1860," Feminist Studies, 8 (1982), 309-335.
- *Elizabeth Pleck, "A Mother's Wages," in The American Family, 2nd
ed., Michael Gordon (St. Martins, 1978), 490-510.
- *Tamara Hareven, "The Dynamics of Kin," in Turning Points, ed.
John Demos and Sarane Boocock (Chicago, 1978), 151-181.
Week 10: Urban and Sub-Urban Space
- Sam Bass Warner,Jr., Streetcar Suburbs.
- Film: Suburbs: Arcadia for Everyone (55 mins.)
- Reflections-Research Essays Assigned
Week 11: City Centralization and Decentralization: The Turn of the Century
- Goldfield and Brownell, Urban America, Chs. 8-11.
- Jon Teaford, The Twentieth-Century American City, Chs. 1-3.
- *Samuel P. Hays, "The Changing Political Structure of the City,"
in Hays, American Political History as Social Analysis
(Tennessee, 1980), 326-356.
- Film: Proud Towers (55 mins.)
Week 12: "New" Immigration/"New" Urbanization
- Judith Smith, Family Connections.
- Film: Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston (60 mins.)
Week 13: The Urbanization of Black Americans
- Kenneth Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape.
- Film: Dallas at the Crossroads ( ) or Goin' to Chicago (70)
Week 14: The Present and the Future of the City: Crises, Fears, Hopes
- Goldfield and Brownell, Urban America, Chs. 11-13.
- Teaford, Twentieth-Century American City, Chs. 4-7.
- *Optional: H.J. Dyos, "Some Historical Reflections on the
Quality of Urban Life," Urban Affairs Annual Review, 3
(1969), 31-60.
- Video: Saving the Cities (30 mins.)/City as Enterprise (15 mins)
- Reflections-Research Essays Due: Mon., Dec. 9