Mapping Metropolis: The Urban Novel as Artifact
HIST 396
Fall 2009 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 386 |
| Course Cluster: Urban Studies |
Taking as its starting point an obscure detective novel published in 1874 and subtitled A Tale of Hartford and New York, this seminar will explore the many facets of urban culture in Gilded Age America. With a primary focus on New York City, students will reconstruct the social, commercial, institutional. and intellectual worlds that constituted the nation's metropolis in the aftermath of the Civil War. Clues in the novel suggest ways of mapping class, gender, and race in the city's social geography. The novel comments perceptively and acerbically on manners, mores, religion, politics, and publishing in the Gilded Age. Institutional structures to be investigated include fashionable churches, department stores, charity nurseries for working mothers, jails, and police courts. Kleptomania, epilepsy, and alcoholism figure prominently in the narrative. Popular entertainment--in bourgeois parlors, saloons, and gaming halls--enlivens the text. The novel also charts the beginnings of the colonial revival movement with its emphasis on historic preservation. The class will collectively construct an archive of primary sources that reveal the understandings of city life that prevailed among the novel's original audience. The seminar offers students the opportunity to pursue original research as principal investigators on key topics in urban cultural history. |
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Essential Capabilities:
None |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(HIST-MN)(HIST) |
Major Readings:
Elaine S. Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store
Sven Beckert, The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850-1896
Anne-Marie Cantwell and Diana diZerega Wall, Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City
Sarah Deutsch, Women and the City: Gender, Power, and Space in Boston, 1870-1940
Jon W. Finson, The Voices that Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song
William R. Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture
Eric H. Monkkonen, Police in Urban America, 1860-1920
David Quigley, Second Founding: New York City, Reconstruction, and the Making of American Democracy
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will present a primary "document" each week to add to the archive. Photographs, etchings, music, maps, etc., as well as texts will be treated as documents. Teams of investigators will research and report on selected topics. Each student will produce an essay, due at the end of the semester, explaining a facet of urban cultural history on which she or he has chosen to develop special expertise. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Attendance at seminar sessions is mandatory. Participation in discussion will be reflected in final evaluations. |
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