INTRODUCTION

This course will examine the development of urban America from the middle of the 19th century to the present. It will emphasize the origins and growth of the industrial and post-industrial city, the interaction between urban residents and their environment, and the impact made by cities on the life of the nation.

Classes will be conducted through a combination of lectures and discussions. There will be a cumulative final examination and an optional take-home midterm (the latter would be 20% of a student's final grade), which will draw together material lectures, readings, and discussions. In addition, undergraduates will do one of the following papers:

1. a 3-5 page review of one of the assigned readings (20% of final grade);

2. a 4-6 page review of an unassigned book found on the supplementary reading list (30%)
3. a 10-15 page term paper (40%).
4. Graduate students have the option of doing either #3 or, #2 and a 4-6 page review of Sam Bass Warner, Jr., THE URBAN WILDERNESS: A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CITY.

Students wishing to do a term paper must receive prior approval of the topic from me. All papers are due by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 28.

Readings will be assigned primarily from the books listed below. All have been placed on reserve in the library and most purchased in relatively inexpensive editions at the UNM Bookstore. Those marked with an * will be read in their entirety and are the only ones which may be used for paper option #1.

• Christopher Tunnard and Henry Hope Reed, American Skyline
• *Richard Bernard and Bradley Rice (eta.) Sunbelt Cities: Politics and Growth Since World War II
• *Sam Bass Warner, Jr., Streetcar Suburbs
• *Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House
• *Thomas Kessner, The Golden Door
• *Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities
• *Kenneth L. Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape
• *Howard N. Rabinowitz, Race Relations in the Urban South 1865-1890
• *Edwin O Connor, The Last Hurrah

Week I: The New City

• Begin Warner, Streetcar Suburbs.

Tuesdays January 17:
Introductory Remarks

Thursday, January 19:
Emergence of the Modern Metropolis

Week II: The Urbanization of America

• Finish Warner;
• (recommended: Howard N. Rabinowitz, "Continuity and Change: Southern Urban Development, 1860-1900", in Brownell and Goldfield (eta.), The City in Southern History, (on reserve).

Tuesday, January 24:
Urban Growth 1870-1920

Thursday, January 26:
The New Immigrants

Week III: The Uprooted?

• Begin Kessner, The Golden Door;
• to be handed out in class, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, 3-10, 30-37, 167-183; and
• Howard N. Rabinowitz, "Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Pluralism in American History," in Gardner and Adams (eta.), Ordinary People and Everyday Life: perspectives on the New Social History, 23-49.

Tuesday, January 31:
Immigrant Life

Thursday, February 2:
The Rise of the Boss System

Week IV: Goodies vs. Baddies?

• Finish Kessner;
• begin Steffens, Shame of the Cities

Tuesday, February 7:
The Boss System in Action

Thursday, February 9:
The Rise of Urban Reform

Week V: Farm vs. City in the Age of Reform: Finish Steffens

Tuesday, February 14:
Populism: Urban and Rural

Thursday, February 16:
Progressivism and the City: A Case Study

Week VI: More on Urban Politics

• Begin Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House.

Tuesday, February 21:
Achievements and Failures of Urban Reform

Thursday, February 23:  The Foundation of Urban Reform: Periphery vs. the Core.

Week VII: Old Neighborhoods and New

• Finish Addams.
• Optional Take-Home Midterm to be handed out in class on Thursday, due in class

Tuesday, February 28:
The Settlement House Movement

Thursday, March 2:
The Zone of Emergence

Week VIII: Alternatives

• Tunnard and Reed, American Skyline, V.

Tuesday, March 7:
Company Towns and Satellite Cities

Thursday, March 9:
The City Beautiful

Week IX: MIDSEMESTER BREAK

Week X: Planning for What?

• Tunnard and Reed, VI;
• Begin Rabinowitz, Race Relations in the Urban South.

Tuesday, March 21:
Slide Lecture on Late 19th Century Urban Problems

Thursday, March 23:
Slide lecture on Late 19th. Century Suggested Solutions.

Week XI: The First Ghettos

• Finish Rabinowitz;
• Begin Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape.

Tuesday, March 28:
Southern Urban Blacks

Thursday, March 30:
Migration and the Formation of the Northern Ghetto.

Week XII: North Toward What?

• Finish Kusmer.

Tuesday, April 4:
Race Riots Old and New

Thursday, April 6:
NO CLASS

Week XIII: The City Victorious

• Tunnard and Reed, VII;
• Begin O Connor, Last Hurrah.

Tuesday, April 11:
The Twenties and Urban Growth

Thursday, April 13:
The Twenties: Urban Dimension of Reaction and the Election of 1928

Week XIV: Picking Up the Pieces

• Finish O'Connor.

Tuesdays April 18:
The Great Depression as a Watershed in American Urban History

Thursday, April 20:
The New Deal as Urban Coalition

Week XV: The Crabgrass Curtain

• Begin Bernard and Rice, Sunbelt Cities;
• Tunnard and Reed, VIII.
• Papers due Friday April 28.

Tuesday April 25:
The Suburban Trend: Past and Present

Thursday, April 27:
The Suburban Impact on National Politics

Week XVI: "The Urban Crisis?'

• Finish, Bernard and Rice.

Tuesday, May 2:
The Modern Metropolis in Historical Perspective

Thursday May 4:
Slide Lecture on the Twentieth Century City