S Y L L A B U S
Introduction
The word "infrastructure" is everywhere these days, but what exactly is it? How did it evolve, why is it important, and how do we fix it? This course will examine the social, political, economic, cultural and technological factors that shaped the creation of urban transportation, communications, and public utility systems in the United States and the challenges we face in repairing and maintaining them into the twenty-first century. If you like tales of engineering marvels and political skullduggery, this is the course for you. This class will use the city of Philadelphia as a laboratory for exploring issues surrounding the creation and upkeep of urban technology.
Texts:
Ruth Schwarz Cowan, More Work for Mother
Theodore Dreiser, The Financier
David Nye, Electrifying America
Gwendolyn Wright, Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Frank Norris, The Octopus
Sam Bass Warner, Jr. Streetcar Suburbs
In addition, a bulk pack will be available from Campus Copy Center
Course Outline
Week One. Introduction: Technological Systems and the Concept of the networked city
- Langdon Winner, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?"
- Herbert L. Abrams and William E. Von Kaenel, "Medical Problems of Survivors of Nuclear War," New England Journal of Medicine, 1981: 1226-1232
- Cowan, pp. 3-68, 102-150
Week Two. Water
- Louis Cain, "Raising and Watering a City: Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough and Chicago's First Sanitation System"
- Gretchen Condran, et al. "The Decline in Mortality in Philadelphia from 1870 to 1930: The Role of Municipal Services"
- Joel Tarr, "The Separate vs. Combined Sewer Problem: A Case Study in Urban Technology Design Choice"
- Field Trip: Waterworks
- Video: The Bridge (Ken Burns, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge)
Week Three. Transportation, Part 1: Turnpikes, Canals, Railroads and the
Creation of an urban-centered national market economy
- Maps from Allan Pred
- Frank Norris, The Octopus
Week Four. Transportation, Part 2: Omnibuses, horsecars, and trollies
- Douglas Booth, "Transportation, City Building, and Financial Crisis: Milwaukee 1852-1868"
- Theodore Dreiser, The Financier
- Nye, Chapter 3, "Crosstown Transfer"
- Field Trip: Market Frankford Elevated, Route 13 trolley
Week Five. Gas and Electricity, Part 1
- Cowan, pp. 69-101, 151-219
- Joel Tarr, "The Urban Politician as Entrepreneur"
- Mark Rose, "Urban Environments and Technological Innovation: Energy Choices in Denver and Kansas City, 1900-1940"
- Mark Bouman, "Luxury and Control: The Urbanity of Street Lighting in Nineteenth-Century Cities"
- Harold Platt, "City Lights: The Electrification of the Chicago Region, 1880-1930"
Week Six. Gas and Electricity, Part 2
- David Nye, Electrifying America, chapters 1,2,4,5
- Field Trip: Philadelphia Electric Company Central Steam Generation Plant
Week Seven. Housing: Balloon frames and skyscrapers
- Gwendolyn Wright, Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America, pp. 73-151
- Warner, Streetcar Suburbs
Week Eight. The transformation of the American Diet
- Harvey Levenstein, "The Rise of the Giant Food Processors"
- Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Week Nine. Communications: Telegraphs and telephones, at work and at home
- Joel Tarr et al., "The City and the Telegraph: Urban Telecommunications in the Pre-Telephone Era"
- Claude Fischer, "'Touch Someone': The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability"
- Nye, Chapter Five, "The Flexible Factory,"
- Video on workplace technology: A Day in the Life of New York Life, 1915
Week Ten. Services: From Mr. Sears Catalogue to the Home Shopping Network
- Susan Porter Benson "A New Kind of Store," in Counter Cultures
- Susan Strasser, "Selling Mrs. Consumer" in Never Done
- Video: Mr. Sears Catalogue
Week Eleven. Technology and Urban Leisure
- John Kasson, Amusing the Million
- Video: Coney Island
Week Twelve. The Automobile and the City, and beyond
- Clay McShane, "Transforming the Use of Urban Space: A Look at the Revolution in Street Pavements"
- Lewis Mumford, The Automobile and the City
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