HIST 364(S) Imagining Urban America, Three Case Studies: Boston, Chicago, and L. A. (Same as American Studies 364)

This course will explore the social, economic, and cultural lives of three American cities, each of which at its zenith seemed to contemporaries to represent definitive aspects of American development. We will begin with Boston-America's first "big" city and the nominal capital of Puritan New England-in the colonial and early national periods. From there we will move to Chicago, the transportation and commercial hub of the emerging national economy in the nineteenth century. Finally we will turn to Los Angeles, "The City of Dreams" and the center of the American popular entertainment industry in the twentieth century. In each case, drawing on a variety of sources, we will examine the economic underpinnings of urban growth and the distinctive society it engendered. Then we will consider some of the city's cultural expressions-expressions that seem to characterize not only the nature of urban America, but in a larger sense the meaning each city gave to American experience at the time. What made these cities seem simultaneously, as they did, so alluring and so dangerous to the fabric of American community and identity? Written work in the course will consist of two short papers and a longer essay analyzing selected primary texts. There will be no hour test or final exam. Enrollment limited. Group A

Hour: R. DALZELL