Week 1--September 9
Introduction to Course

Week 2--September 16
What is a City?
Readings:
Philip Kasinitz, “Introduction,” Metropolis: Center and Symbol of Our Times (1995), Course Reader.
Lewis Mumford, “What is a City?” Course Reader.
Joseph Bensman and Arthur J. Vidich, "Race, Ethnicity, and New Forms of Urban Community," Course Reader.

I. THE ANTEBELLUM CITY

Week 3--September 23
Antebellum Urban Communities
Reading:
Mary Ryan, The American Parade: Representations of the Nineteenth Century Social Order”, Mohl, TMUA, 73-92.
Film:
Ric Burns, New York: A Documentary History, Episode 2: Order and Disorder (1825-1865)
Due: Response Paper #1.

Week 4--September 30
Sexual Danger in the Industrializing City
Reading:
Timothy J. Gilfoyle, “Strumpets and Misogynists: Brothel ‘Riots’ and the Transformation of Prostitution in Antebellum New York City” in TMUA, 37-52.
Patricia Cline Cohen, “Unregulated Youth: Masculinity and Murder in the 1830’s City,” Course Reader.

II. THE INDUSTRIAL CITY

Week 5--October 7
19th-Century Urban Immigrant Communities
GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION “SWEDISH LIFE IN THE TWIN CITIES” by Nina Clark, Education Program Coordinator
American Swedish Institute, 2600 Park Avenue
(www.americanswedishinst.org).   >> American Swedish Institute
Reading:
immigrant biographies (distributed week prior)

Week 6--October 14
Urban Communities of Labor and Leisure
Reading:
Madelon Powers, “The Poor Man’s Friend: Saloonkeepers, Workers, and the Code of Reciprocity in U.S. Barrooms, 1870-1920” in Mohl, TMUA, 153-166.
Kathy Peiss, “Leisure and Labor,” in Mohl, TMUA, 167-186.
Due: Response Paper #2.

Week 7--October 21
The Struggle over Urban Politics
Reading:
Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall (selections).
Daniel Czitrom,”Underworlds and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889-1913” in TMUA, 37-52.
Mid-term Paper Assigned.

Week 8--October 28
The “Problem” of the City
Reading:
Jacob Riis, How The Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York.
Slide Lecture: “Jacob Riis’s Other Half”
Due: Mid-Term Paper

III. THE 20TH-CENTURY CITY

Week 9--November 4
Ethnicity, Culture and Community
Reading:
George J. Sanchez, Music and Mass Culture in Mexican-American Los Angeles” in TMUA, 231-264.
Robert Orsi, “The Religious Boundaries of an Inbetween People: Street Feste and the Problem of the Dark-Skinned Other in Italian Harlem, 1920-1990,” Course Reader.
Film:
Joseph Tovares, The Zoot Suit Riots

Week 10--November 11
Community and Resistance in the Great Depression
Reading:
Victoria W. Wolcott, “The Culture of the Informal Economy: Numbers Runners in Inter-War Detroit,” Course Reader.
George Chauncey, Jr., “The Policed: Gay Men’s Strategies of Everyday Resistance,” Course Reader.

Week 11--November 18
Social Science, “The Urban Crisis” and “The Underclass”
Reading:
Jones, et. al. Our America:Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago
Film:
excerpts from Blackside Films, America’s War on Poverty: Episode 2--City of Promise.
Due: Response Paper #3.

Week 12--November 25
“The Urban Crisis?”: The West Bank
Reading:
xeroxed documents (distributed week prior)

Week 13--December 2
Race, Culture, and the Postindustrial City
Reading:
Robin D. G. Kelley, “Looking for the ‘Real’ Nigga: Social Scientists Construct the Ghetto,” Course Reader.
Robin D.G. Kelley, “Kickin’ Reality, Kickin’ Ballistics: ‘Gangsta Rap’ and Postindustrial Los Angeles,” Course Reader.
Final Paper Assigned.

Week 14--December 9
New Immigrant/Migrant Communities in the Twin Cities
Guest Speaker: Rachel Thompson screens and discusses her film: From Mogadishu to Minneapolis: Somali Music in Diaspora.
Reading:
Rudolph J. Vecoli, “Immigrants and the Twin Cities: Melting Pot or Mosaic?,” Course Reader.
Due: Draft of Final Paper

REVISED FINAL PAPERS DUE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18 AT NOON.
Paper drafts with instructor comments will be made available in the history department on Wednesday, December 11 at noon. Students are encouraged to schedule an appointment with the instructor to discuss the final revision.