This course will investigate and compare the experience of urban modernization and modernity in two great West European capitals, London and Berlin, circa 1900. In the last few decades of the nineteenth century, both cities experienced a series of dramatic social and economic transformations, including unprecedented population growth, foreign immigration from Eastern Europe, industrial concentration and physical expansion. Despite the many national and cultural differences that marked London and Berlin, these larger structural changes confronted both cities with a host of similar challenges. We will examine the reactions of middle and upper class inhabitants in each city to the presence of an increasingly vocal working-class majority in their midst, particularly the reactions of social reformers, social critics and city planners. We will ask how social differences of class, gender and even race were mapped onto urban public spaces such as parks, taverns, department stores and international exhibitions. We will also study the new political movements which arose in both cities, including organized socialism, feminism, and (in Berlin) right-wing anti-Semitism. Finally, we will explore some of the many artistic and cultural innovations that thrived in the two capitals circa 1900, from the mass-circulation daily newspaper, and Berlin's cabarets and London's music halls, to the formal experimentation of writers and artists trying to capture the essence of the "modern metropolis." Class discussion will revolve around close analysis of the readings and sources: historical scholarship, contemporary novels and social commentary, examples of both "high art" and popular culture. Evaluation will be based on class participation, one 10-page research paper, and midterm and a final exam. No prerequisites or enrollment limit. Group B

ROSENFELD