2:30-3:45P     TR     BH103

Above section open to undergraduates only
A portion of the above section reserved for majors

In the twentieth century the American experience had largely become an
urban one.  From the street corner to the freeway, the images of the
city have become an important part of Americana.  In this course we
will explore the origins of the American city and examine the growth
and development of major American urban centers such as New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami.  Looking briefly at traditional urban
forms, we will study how the American colonial city functioned and how
it was transformed into the modern metropolis of the twentieth
century.  We will examine the meanings of life and work within the
city through studies of urban planning and growth, politics and
policing, ghettos and suburbs, leisure, pollution, sanitation, sex,
race, crime, and danger.  Readings include Amy Gilman Srebnick, The
Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in 19th Century New
York; Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities; Claude Brown,
Manchild in the Promised Land; and Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the
Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit.