HUHI 7396 Harvey J. Graff
Fall, 1996 JO 3.104, 883-2776
Thursday, 9:30-12:15 Office hours: Thurs., 1:00-2:00, & by appointments.

Dallas: The Course

Dallas, we are told proudly and repeatedly, has no history! In typical con- structions of the city's "origin myths," history(ies) represent(s) something negative or at least qualities or consciousness that are best avoided. Ahistorical and erroneous notions stand poorly in place of understanding that might prove useful in posing and attempting to resolve critical questions of the present and the future(s). Whereas "new" or "sunbelt" cities are seen as exceptions to historical currents, sometimes but not always within a postmodernist vein, the case of Dallas is truly exceptional, extreme to the point of perversity and willful, costly ignorance. Many questions, across the intellectual and cultural compass--certainly across the arts and humanities--follow from this recognition. The course confronts both the question of Dallas' fear of the past and its revealing ahistoricity, the myths that develop in that situation, and the challenge of initiating serious research and reflection to revise the barren intellectual landscape.

This course attempts to confront the wasteland of Dallas studies across the range of the human sciences, from a historical foundation. Combining seminar and workshop formats, beginning with an inquiry into urban and community studies and history, we will then shift into the mode of a research seminar for the second half of the semester. Class members will select their research topics in consultation with instructor and colleagues in the class. Projects may be either individual or collaborative, and may stem from any field of interest within the scope of the School of Arts and Humanities graduate program.

Requirements: regular reading, attendance, and participation--in one's own as well as one's peers research projects; oral reports on readings; preparation and presentation of a research essay.

Books: (ordered for the university bookstore and Off-Campus Books; all paperbound)

Syllabus

Week 1. Introduction: The Phenomena of Dallas; Reading the Signs
Week 2. Cities and Communities in American History
Week 3. Late-Twentieth-Century Culminations: Post-Modern? Post-Urban?
Week 4. Dallas History: A Long View
Week 5. Re-Searching Dallas/Electronic Research Weeks 5 and 6: Initial presentation of research projects. Each class member will present for discussion and responses their subject and plan for research. This should include statement of questions and arguments or thesis; research design or strategy; and bibliography and sources. Any illustrative materials should be distributed to all class members.

Brief research proposals (1-2 pages) due no later than Week 6

Week 7. Dallas: Recent Past Week 8-9-10. Research time/Consultations/Progress reports/Working ses- sions

Revised brief research proposals and bibliographies due no later than Week 9

Week 11. Imagining Dallas?! [or perhaps later in semester]
Weeks 12. Research/Writing Time

Weeks 13-14. Presentation and discussion of papers

Final projects due at class time

* Library reserve

Recent Articles*

Roger Biles, "The New Deal in Dallas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 95 (1991), 1-19

Amy Bridges, various articles on political reform in Sunbelt cities that mention Dallas

W. Marvin Dulaney, "Whatever Happened to the Civil Rights Movement in Dallas, Texas?" in Essays on the American Civil Rights Movement, ed. Dulaney and Kathleen Underwood (Texas A & M University Press, for the University of Texas at Arlington Webb Memorial Lectures, l993), 66-95

_____, "The Progressive Voters League," Legacies, 3 (1991), 27-35

Elizabeth York Enstam, "They Called It 'Motherhood': Dallas Women and Public Life, 1895-1918," in Hidden Histories of Women in the South, ed. Virginia Bernhard, et ak (Univ. of Missouri Press, 1994), 71-95, among the papers from her book-length history of Dallas women in progress.

Robert B. Fairbanks, "The Good Government Machine: The Citizen's Charter Association and Dallas Politics, 1930-1960," in Essays on Sunbelt Cities and Recent Urban America, ed. Fairbanks and Kathleen Underwood (Texas A & M Uni- versity Press for the University of Texas at Arlington Webb Memorial Lectures, 1990), 125-150

_____, "Metropolitan Planning and Downtown Redevelopment: The Cincinnati and Dallas Experiences," Planning Perspectives, 2 (1987), 237-253

_____, "From Consensus to Controversy: The Rise and Fall of Public Housing in Dallas," Legacies, 1 (1989), 37-43

_____, "Dallas in the 1940s: The Challenges and Opportunities of Defense Mobilization," in Urban Texas: Politics and Development, ed. Char Miller and Heywood T. Sanders (Texas A & M University Press, 1990), 141-153

_____, "Responding to the Airplane: Urban Rivalry, Metropolitan Regionalism, and Airport Development, 1927-1954," in Technological Knowledge in American Culture: Science, Technology, and Medicine Since the Early 1800s, ed. Hamilton Cravens et al (Univ. of Alabama Press, 1996), 171-188

_____, "Planning, Public Works, and Politics: The Trinity River Reclamation Project in Dallas," in Planning the Twentieth-Century American City, ed. Mary Corbin Sies and Christopher Silver (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1996), 187-212

Michael Q. Hooks, "The Role of Promoters in Urban Rivalry: The Dallas-Fort Worth Experience, 1870-1910," Red River Historical Review 7 (1982), 4-16

Martin V. Melosi, "Dallas-Fort Worth: Marketing the Metroplex," in Sunbelt Cities: Politics and Growth Since World War II, ed. Richard M. Bernard and Bradley R. Rice (University of Texas Press, 1983), 162-195

William H. Wilson, "Adapting to Growth: Dallas, Texas, and the Kessler Plan, 1908-1933," Arizona and the West 25 (1983), 245-260

_____, "Private Planning for Black Housing in Dallas, Texas, 1945-1955," Proceedings of the Second National Conference on American Planning History 2 (1988), 67-84

_____, "Desegregation of the Hamilton Park School, 1955-1975," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 95 (1991), 42-63

_____, "'This Negro Housing Matter': The Search for a Viable African-American Residential Subdivision in Dallas, 1945-1950," Legacies 6 (Fall 1994), 28-40

* See also Legacies, published by the Dallas Historical Society and Dallas County Heritage Society. Three Forks Press recently published a selection of articles, ed. Michael Hazel.

Core Bibliography for Urban History/Urban Studies
History

Social Science