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Required Readings

Grading Breakdown

Classroom Behavior and Standards

Paper Assignment

Schedule

More specifically, we will investigate the origins and growth of the industrial city and the post-industrial city; the interaction between urban residents and their environment; and the impact cities have made (and continue to make) on the lives of ordinary Americans and on the nation as a whole. We’ll deal with such topics as spatial organization, city life and cultures, migration and immigration, the ecology of cities, urban diversity, technology, urban politics, and the tensions between the forces of centralization and decentralization. These topics and themes will be explored both in a general way and in the context of specific cities and historical contexts.

The course requires students to attend lectures twice a week, write a research paper, complete all assigned readings (200-250 pages a week), and take and pass both a midterm exam and a final exam.

• Jon C. Teaford. The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise, Reality. 2nd edition.

• John M. Findlay. Magic Lands: Western Cityscapes and American Cultures After 1940.

• Greg Hise. Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth-Century Metropolis.

• Thomas J. Sugrue. Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit.

• Course Reader: For sale from University Reader Printing Service (619-540-8789).

Research Paper: 40%

Final : 35%

Be prompt and on time to lectures, so that you do not disturb your classmates or professor. Eating or drinking during lectures is fine, but, again, try to avoid disturbing others. Remember to take out your trash as well. If you absolutely must be late (or have to leave early), aim for a seat next to a door.

Turn in assignments on time and in the best possible condition . This means that they must be handed in by the end of class on the day they are due.

Papers should be clear, well-organized, and have a clear argument and supporting evidence. If you are unsure about your ability to produce such work, please seek assistance as soon as possible. OASIS (3rd floor, Center Hall) is a good place to start.

Papers must be checked for spelling and other errors; these errors should be corrected before printing the final copy (rather than using wite-out). Be aware that computer checking programs do not catch all mistakes!

Papers should be stapled (NO folders!) and have your name, date, and the title of the course on them.

LATE work will be penalized severely! Taking an extra day will not make enough difference to make turning it in late worthwhile; indeed, you will probably come out worse off than you would be if your paper were in on time.

Lectures, books, and articles in the reader are all fair game for the exams, by the way.

Be respectful and polite towards others and their ideas . Of course, at times you may find yourself disagreeing strongly with certain points being made. Indeed, it is hoped that you will develop your own perspective on and critique of the materials. But remember that other people are trying to do the same, and respect their efforts as you would like them to respect yours.

A note on academic misconduct --
that is, cheating on exams and plagarizing (passing off the ideas or words of another as your own).
Any student who engages in such activities is risking severe penalties, up to and including expulsion from the university. It also defeats the whole purpose of taking the class in the first place -- that is, to learn something. If you’re thinking about cheating or plagarizing, don’t even bother taking the class. It would be a waste of time for both of us.

If you have any questions about any of this, please ask.

Required Reading: Christopher Salter, “How to Read a City” (in reader). Also this description!

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

A) Pick a spot in San Diego county to “read.”

Pick a place that will lend itself to this assignment . That is, pick an area that is built up in some way. Avoid an empty expanse of land that lacks a human landscape. Also take the availability (or not) of historical sources dealing with that place into consideration.
(This is supposed to be a challenging assignment, but not an impossible one.)

Narrow your spot to a manageable size. Rather than taking in a huge panorama, choose instead a city or suburban block, an intersection, a section of a housing development, a corner in downtown, etc.

You are especially encouraged to pick an area of the city that is unfamiliar to you.

Do NOT pick an area on campus! (Think of this as an excuse to go exploring).

1) Observation: visually analyze your area, and try to make sense of the elements in the landscape. Begin with the obvious, then move toward a more comprehensive analysis.

What do you see? You might consider topography, transportation, public and private buildings, indications of people’s values and/or beliefs, their ethnicity, signs of social status, etc.

If there are residences in the area, consider these questions: What type of housing is typical for the area (apartments, single-family homes, row houses, etc.)? How do you think the area was developed (by speculators, individual architects, people who built their own homes)? What does the residential landscape (dwellings, cars, gardens, etc.) tell you about the social class/occupations/income and the ethnicity of the people who live there now? Are there any signs that the original occupants might have been different, when the area was first developed? What are they?

2) Speculation: speculate about why the landscape is ordered the way it is, the utility of the area, the reasons it looks as it does.

What do you think the “shapers” -- developers, residents, policy makers, etc. -- of this particular landscape had in mind when they designed, planned, and built this area? What is going on in this landscape now? Are there patterns of change or transition which you can detect?

3) Analysis: Investigate the history of your area by finding at least 6 sources on it (such as census data, newspaper articles, a history of San Diego that mentions this area, local city records, city ordinances, developers’ records, Chamber of Commerce records, Sanborn fire insurance maps, etc.). If you choose to use internet material, choose carefully, for you can only use one such source (see below).

How do your sources help you make sense of your spot? Do they help you answer any questions that arose for you during the previous two steps? What seems to have happened to the area over time? What (if anything) has changed from its early years to today?

If you are not sure about where to find source materials, please ask for help -- the sooner the better. Reference librarians (at UCSD, or in local library branches) are a good place to start. Take this assignment with you, and show them what you’re trying to do.

You may, if you wish, consult an excellent web page on San Diego: www.sandag.cog.ca.us . If you use this, it will count as 1 source.

4) Evaluation:
Does the human modification of this area work? For whom? Who does it leave out? How could this landscape be used more productively, or equitably? Is it a wise use of this land? Does this landscape have environmental, social, cultural, and economic merit?

Format: 8-10 pages, typed, double-spaced. Be sure to number your pages. Double-sided is okay. Don’t forget your name, date, and course title. Do NOT use a folder; DO be sure to staple your paper.

The essay should discuss the four elements of the above exercise. However, do not simply list each element: your paper should develop a clear, well-constructed analysis/critique/argument with a clear sense of purpose and a clear point of view. (It would not be a bad idea to actually write these down.) A clear introduction and conclusion will improve your readers’ understanding of your argument. The paper should also have a title -- the more informative the better (that is, “Paper Assignment” won’t hack it). Don’t forget to back up your claims/observations/assertions with supporting evidence/examples.

Be sure to identify the location of the spot you have chosen, so that we can tell what you’re writing about. (Who knows, your essay might inspire someone to visit your site!) A map would be helpful -- but don’t include it in the page count (see below).

All sources used need to be cited, even if you are not directly quoting from them. (See note on plagarism in the section on conduct). All papers should include footnotes (the standard for historical writing) and a bibliography. If you are not sure about proper footnote and bibliography formats, refer to a style manual. Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers is the preferred guide, but the Chicago Manual of Style is also acceptable. (Both are available in the main bookstore and in the library.) If you’re not sure how to do footnotes on the computer, now is the time to learn!

Photographs and maps are strongly encouraged ; you can use them to illustrate the points you are making in your paper. Be sure to label them so you can refer to them easily. A caption is also helpful. (See the pictures in Findlay or Sugrue for examples.) It is probably easier to include them all in an appendix at the end, than to try to paste them into the essay. Be sure to cite the sources used (Findlay shows how to do this within the caption).

Note: photographs and maps should not be included in the page count (that is, you need to turn in 8-10 typed pages).

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Note: Reading assignments will not always match the weekly topic; this was done to spread out the workload more evenly, and to ensure that you have the background needed to fully appreciate later material. Therefore, it is not a bad idea to take notes on the earlier readings, especially Teaford.

Also note that the reading load is generally lighter in the first half of the quarter than in the second. The extra time should be spent working on your research project.

First Class - Introduction
Thursday, September 30
Readings (due before Tuesday next week) (21 pages excluding notes):

Reader:

Salter, “How to Read a City”
Carl Abbot, “Thinking about Cities”

Teaford:

Editor’s Foreword
Preface
Preface to the First Edition

Reader:

Smith and White, Preface to “Chicago”
Burgess, “Urban Areas”
Gordon, “Capitalist Development and the History of American Cities”

Teaford:

Chap. 1, “Problem, Promise, and Reality”
Chap. 2, “The Century Begins”
Chap. 3, “Promises Thwarted”

Reader:

Katz, “Surviving Poverty in Early Twentieth-Century New York City”
Bodnar, Weber, and Simon, “Migration, Kinship, and Urban Adjustment”

Teaford:

Chap. 4, “An Interlude in Urban Development”
Chap. 5, “Suburbia Trimphant”
Chap. 6, “An Age of ‘Urban Crisis’”
Chap. 7, “Toward a New Metropolis”

Reader:

Peiss, “Leisure and Labor”
Cohen, “Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots”
Ewen, “City Lights: Immigrant Women and the Rise of the Movies” (optional)

Findlay:

Introduction
Chap. 1, “Explosive Metropolis”
Chap. 2, “Disneyland”

Findlay:

Chap. 3, “Stanford Industrial Park”
Chap. 4, “Sun City, Arizona”
Chap. 5, “The Seattle World’s Fair”

Review your notes for the midterm.

Reader:

Lotchin, “The Metropolitan-Military Complex in Comparative Perspective”
Sharpe and Wallock, “Bold New City or Built-Up ‘Burb?”

Findlay:

Chap. 6, “Western Cityscapes and American Culture”

Hise:

Introduction
Chap. 1, “Modern Community Planning”

Reader:

Machor, “Organic Cities”
Schmitt, “Introduction”
, “Back to Nature”
, “The New Frontier”
May, “The Commondity Gap”

Hise:

Chap. 2, “The Minimum House”
Chap. 3, “Model Communities for Migrant Workers”

Reader:

O’Connor, “A Region of Cities”
Zukin, “Disney World”
Davis, “Fortress L.A.”

Hise:

Chap. 4, “The Airplane and the Garden City”
Chap. 5, “Kaiser Community Homes”
Chap. 6, “‘Building a City Where a City Belongs’”

Sugrue:

Introduction
Part One: Arsenal
Part Two: Rust

Reader:

Laslett, “Historical Perspectives”
Sanchez, “Workers and Consumers”
Cornell, “The Politics of Indianess”
Davis, “Chinatown Part Two?”

Sugrue:

Part Three: Fire
Conclusion

Review!

(And get a good night’s sleep before the exam.)

Finals Week
Monday, December 13 - Saturday, December 18.

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