U.S. Urban History

History 304/504

 

J. Mark Souther, Ph.D.
Rhodes Tower 1904
Department of History
Cleveland State University
Spring Semester 2007

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Requirements

Readings

Schedule

Euclid Corridor Project

Syllabus (PDF)

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Schedule (Revised April 6, 2007)

Readings should be completed before the week under which they are listed. Selections not found in the four assigned books may be accessed via Electronic Course Reserve (ECR).

Week 1
Wed., Jan. 17 Course Introduction
Fri., Jan . 19 Thinking About Cities

Reading for Week 1
Fri.: Mumford, “What Is a City?” (ECR)
Fri.: Hayden, Building Suburbia, chaps. 1 & 2

Week 2
Mon., Jan. 22 Colonial Seaports
Wed., Jan. 24 The Development of Urban Networks
Fri., Jan. 26 Borderlands and Picturesque Enclaves: The Emergence of Suburbs
DUE 1/26 (via email): Topic Selection

Reading for Week 2
Mon.: Nash, “Social Evolution of Preindustrial American Cities” (ECR)
Fri.: Hayden, Building Suburbia, chaps. 3 & 4

Week 3
Mon., Jan. 29 Introduction to CSU Special Collections (Library, 3rd floor)
Wed., Jan. 31 Urban Order/Disorder in the Mid-19th Century
Fri., Feb. 2 Creating the “Middle Landscape” in Urban America

Reading for Week 3
Wed.: Foster, New York by Gas-light, pp. 1-199

Fri.: Schuyler, “The Naturalistic Landscape: Central Park” (ECR)


Week 4

Mon., Feb. 5 The Rise of Urban-Industrial America
Wed., Feb. 7 Cities in the New South
Fri., Feb. 9 The Immigrant City

Reading for Week 4
Mon.: Cronon, “Annihilating Space: Meat” & “The Busy Hive” (ECR)
Wed.: Goldfield, “The Old South Under New Conditions” (ECR)

Week 5
Mon., Feb. 12 Introduction to InterClipper (Chester Building 279)
Wed., Feb. 14 Snowstorm–No Class
Fri., Feb. 16 The Emergence of Urban Mass Culture

Reading for Week 5
Fri.: Peiss, “Leisure and Labor” (ECR)

Week 6
Mon., Feb. 19 President’s Day–No Class
Wed., Feb. 21 The Rise of Downtown
Fri., Feb. 23 Urban Expositions and the City Beautiful
DUE 2/23: Secondary-source Essay

Reading for Week 6
Fri.: Peterson, “Civic Art, 1890-1900” (ECR)
Fri.: Isenberg, Downtown America, chaps. 1 & 2

Week 7
Mon., Feb. 26 The Emergence of Urban Tourism
Wed., Feb. 28 Streetcar Suburbs
Fri., Mar. 2 Urban Problems in the Industrial Age

Reading for Week 7
Mon.: Cocks, Doing the Town, chap. 1, chaps. 2 or 3, chaps. 5 & 6
Wed.: Hayden, Building Suburbia, chap. 5
Fri.: Riis, How the Other Half Lives, intro. + chaps. 1-5, 9, 13, 20

Week 8
Mon., Mar. 5 Political Machines and Progressive Reform
Wed., Mar. 7 Review Day (No Class)
Fri., Mar. 9 MIDTERM EXAM

Reading for Week 8
Mon.: Chudacoff & Smith, “City Politics in the Era of Transformation” (ECR)

Mar. 11-18 Spring Break–No Classes

Week 9
Mon., Mar. 19 The Great Migration
DUE 3/19: Primary-source Collection (Minus Clips)
Wed., Mar. 21 City and Suburb in the 1920s
Fri., Mar. 23 The Emergence of Urban Historic Preservation

Reading for Week 9
Mon.:
Gregory, “The Black Metropolis” (ECR)
Wed.:
Fogelson, “The Central Business District” (ECR)
Wed.:
Hayden, Building Suburbia, chap. 6
Fri.:
Stanonis, “French Town” (ECR)

Week 10
Mon., Mar. 26 City and Suburb in Depression and War
Wed., Mar. 28 Creating the Crabgrass Frontier: Postwar Suburbanization
Fri., Mar. 30 The American City at Its Peak? The 1950s

Reading for Week 10
Mon.:
Isenberg, Downtown America, chap. 4
Wed.:
Hayden, Building Suburbia, chap. 7
Fri.:
Johns, “The Downtown” or “The Neighborhoods” (ECR)

Week 11
Mon., Apr. 2 The New Main Street: Shopping Malls
Wed., Apr. 4 Urban Renewal
Fri., Apr. 6 Suburban Alchemy: Planned Suburbs

Reading for Week 11
Mon.:
Gladwell, “The Terrazzo Jungle” (ECR)
Wed.:
Isenberg, Downtown America, chap. 5
Fri.: Bloom, “Columbia, Maryland” & “Shame of the Suburbs” (ECR)


Week 12
Mon., Apr. 9 Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Housing
DUE 4/9: Clip Collection
Wed., Apr. 11 Origins of the Urban Crisis: Deindustrialization & Racial Turmoil
Fri., Apr. 13 Directed Research Day (in CSU Special Collections)

Reading for Week 12
Mon.: Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, Part I - Arsenal
Wed.: Sugrue, Origins, Parts II & III (excerpts tbd) - Rust & Fire

Week 13
Mon., Apr. 16 Racial Violence and the Fate of the City
Wed., Apr. 18 Pollution and Environmentalism, Sprawl and Regionalism
Fri., Apr. 20 African American Suburbanization
DUE 4/20: Research Paper


Reading for Week 13
Mon.: Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, conclusion
Mon.: Isenberg, Downtown America, chap. 6
Fri.: Wiese, “Something Old, Something New” (ECR)


Week 14
Mon., Apr. 23 Cities of Leisure: Tourism and Gentrification
Wed., Apr. 25 Main Street America: Downtown Preservation
Fri., Apr. 27 New Migrations
DUE 4/27: Visual/Sound Presentation

Reading for Week 14
Mon.: Souther, “A City on Parade” (ECR)
Wed.: Isenberg, Downtown America, chap. 7

Week 15
Mon., Apr. 30 New Directions: Edge Cities, Technoburbs, New Urbanism
Wed., May 2 Urban Disasters: Post-Katrina New Orleans in Historical Perspectives
Fri., May 4 Selected Visual/Sound Presentations
DUE 5/4 (via email): Revised Research Paper (WAC)

Reading for Week 15
Mon.: Hayden, Building Suburbia, chaps. 8 & 10
Wed.: Vale & Campanella, “The Cities Rise Again” (ECR)
Wed.: Miller, “Out of the Blue: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871” (ECR)
Wed.: Colten, “The City and the Environment” (ECR)

Wed., May 9 FINAL EXAM (8:30–10:30 a.m.)

Optional Event: Euclid Avenue Walking Tour (12:30 p.m.)
Meet in front of the Terminal Tower across from Public Square. Our tour will serve as a stress-free capstone to the course experience and will last about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, ending at CSU.

This image from Peaceful Shaker Village, a late-1920s promotional booklet for the planned Cleveland, Ohio, suburb of Shaker Heights, shows fanciful houses in the clouds, ostensibly linked to downtown Cleveland as symbolized by the Terminal Tower. It suggests a hopeful vision of an urban future in which downtown and suburb could coexist harmoniouslya vision which proved illusive.