Urban United States History, 1880 to Present
Department of History
Tuesday & Thursday 11:30 to 12:45
UN 3054
Contact Information
Professor Jeff Strickland
Email: stricklandj@mail.montclair.edu
Office: 425 Dickson Hall
Office Hours: Tuesday 9 to 11, Thursday 3 to 5, & by appointment
Course Description
This course covers issues and problems in the urban development of the
Course Objectives
· You will analyze and interpret primary source documents.
· You will write an original research paper based upon primary and secondary sources.
· You will read and become familiar with recent secondary works in urban history.
· You will identify the historical roots of contemporary urban problems.
Required Readings
Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (University of California Press)
John Bodnar, Lives of Their Own: Blacks, Italians, and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900-1960 (University of Illinois Press)
Kevin Mumford, Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America (New York University Press)
James B. LaGrand, Indian Metropolis: Native Americans in Chicago, 1945-75 (University of Illinois Press)
Mike Davis, Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City (Verso)
Supplemental
Blackboard Web Site
Email Accounts
You should activate their university email accounts no later than the first week of class. Failure to do so will result in the inability to log into Blackboard, receive course documents, updates and other messages from us.
Attendance
You are expected attend each class meetings since it is necessary preparation for exams and the research paper. If you miss more than one class, you will deduct 10% for each absence thereafter from your final grade average. Of course, this is before any of your assignments have been graded.
General Rules
If you arrive after 5:30 PM, you will be marked absent.
If you leave class for longer than it takes to use the restroom, you will be marked absent.
If you attempt to use your cell phone during class, you will be asked to leave the room and marked absent.
If you plagiarize, you fail the course and I will refer you to the Dean of Students for adjudication.
Midterm Exam (20 %)
You will answer questions based upon materials discussed during each class meeting subsequent to the midterm examination. You will also answer questions based upon material contained in each of the assigned readings. I do not hold exam reviews. Instead, you are expected to attend all class meetings in anticipation of the midterm exam. The midterm will take place on October 28. If you miss the midterm, then you will receive an “F” in the course.
Final Exam (20 %)
The final will take place December 15 from 1 to 3pm. You will answer questions based upon materials discussed during each class meeting subsequent to the final examination. You will also answer questions based upon material contained in each of the assigned readings. You must take the final exam on the date assigned by the university. There are no exceptions and you cannot request a change of exam date and time. If you miss the final exam, you will receive an F in the course.
Original Research Paper (20 %)
Your paper will deal with the social, economic, or political history of race and ethnicity in US cities. I will distribute detailed paper guidelines in well in advance of the due date. You must submit your final paper to the digital dropbox on December 10 at 10 PM.
Précis on Five Books (25 %)
Each student will turn in a two-page précis for each book. This can be done in prose, outline system, or with headers. The two-page précis is designed to help you read the book critically for argument, historiographical issues, and provide a "road map" for our discussion. You should address briefly:
(1) The Author's background and other works (search the web, web databases such as "American History and Life," "Historical Abstracts", "World Cat," and the MSU Catalog)
(2) The Historical problem(s) the Author tackles. Pose these problems in the form of a question.
(3) Author's thesis (or theses)
(4) Sources
(5) Genre of History (Social, Cultural, Institutional, Diplomatic, Economic, Intellectual, Political, etc)
(6) Significant findings
(7) Historiographical contribution(s)
(8) Author's Ideological/Methodological Orientation (i.e. Marxist, structuralist, post-structuralist, foucaultian, etc).
(9) The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Book.
In Class Participation and Discussion (5 %)
You are expected to participate thoughtfully in the discussions and activities. This requires attendance at all class meetings. Excused absences require written verification and notification of your professor. Examples of excused absences include medical or personal emergencies, university-sanctioned absences, and religious holidays. Students should inform the instructor in writing of any anticipated absences as soon as possible.
You will earn the following points for participation:
0 = not present
1 = present but did not contribute,
2 = contributed comments that were not relevant,
3 = offered comments generally related to the topic
4 = offered thoughtful comments that were clearly related to the topic
Blogs (10 %)
You will participate in weekly blogs at http://usurbanhistory.blogspot.com/. You are expected to post at least one comment by 10PM on the date noted. Of course you can post early and often. You will earn the following points for participation:
0 = did not post
1 = barely contributed
2 = contributed comments that were not relevant,
3 = offered comments generally related to the topic
4 = offered thoughtful comments that were clearly related to the topic
Policy on Late Assignments
Late assignments will result in the student reducing his/her grade by 15 percentage points for each 24 hour period past the due date. You have the option to submit your assignments early.
Students with Disabilities
The Services for Students with Disabilities office is located in the
Tolerance to Create a Climate for Civility and
Academic Honesty—Plagiarism—Cheating (Section 9, MSU Code of Conduct)
Plagiarism is defined as using another person's words as if they were your own, and the unacknowledged incorporation of those words in one's own work for academic credit. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, submitting as one's own a project, paper, report, test, program, design, or speech copied from, partially copied, or partially paraphrased work of another (whether the source is printed, under copyright in manuscript form or electronic media) without proper citation. Source citations must be given for works quoted or paraphrased. The above rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral. The following guidelines for written work will assist students in avoiding plagiarism:
(a) General indebtedness for background information and data must be acknowledged by inclusion of a bibliography of all works consulted;
(b) Specific indebtedness for a particular idea, or for a quotation of four or more consecutive words from another text, must be acknowledged by footnote or endnote reference to the actual source. Quotations of four words or more from a text must also be indicated by the use of quotation marks;
(c) A project work shall be considered plagiarism if it duplicates in whole or in part, without citation, the work of another person to an extent than is greater that is commonly accepted. The degree to which imitation without citation is permissible varies from discipline to discipline. Students must consult their instructors before copying another person's work.
Minimum sanction: Probation; Maximum sanction: Expulsion
Grading System
| 95-100 | A |
| 90-94 | A- |
| 87-89 | B+ |
| 84-86 | B |
| 80-83 | B- |
| 77-79 | C+ |
| 74-76 | C |
| 70-73 | C- |
| 67-69 | D+ |
| 64-66 | D |
| 60-63 | D- |
| 1-59 | F |
Course Outline
| Date | Topic | Assignment | |
| Sept 4 | Introduction | Shah Précis 1 due Sept. 22 at 10PM Blog #1 due Sept. 5 at 10PM | Shah, Contagious Divides |
| Sept 9 | The Impact of Urbanization | Blog # 2due Sept. 12 at 10PM | Shirley J. Yee,” Dependency and Opportunity: Socioeconomic Relations between Chinese and Non-Chinese in |
| Sept 11 | Sex in the City | | Mark Wild, “Red Light Kaleidoscope: Prostitution and Ethnoracial Relations in |
| Sept 16 | Urban Crime | Blog #3 due Sept. 19 at 10PM | Timothy J. Gilfoyle, " |
| Sept 18 | Asian Immigrants | | Huping Ling,”’Hop Alley’: Myth and Reality of the |
| Sept 23 | Race and the City | Bodnar Précis 2 due Oct. 14 at 10PM Blog #4 due Sept. 26 at 10PM | Bodnar, Lives of Their Own |
| Sept 25 | | | Joel A. Tarr, “The Metabolism of the |
| Sept 30 | Mortality and Disease | Blog #5 due Oct. 3 at 10PM | Clayton R. Koppes and William P. Norris, “Ethnicity, Class, and Mortality in the |
| Oct 2 | European Immigrants | | Corinne Azen Krause, “Urbanization Without Breakdown: Italian, Jewish, and Slavic Immigrant Women in |
| Oct 7 | Municipal Politics | Blog #6 due Oct. 10 at 10PM | Samuel P. Hays,” The Changing Political Structure of the City in Industrial |
| Oct 9 | Cities in World War II | | Thomas M. Linehan, “Japanese American Resettlement in |
| Oct 14 | African Americans | Mumford Précis 3 due Oct. 25 at 10PM Blog #7 due Oct. 17 at 10PM | Mumford, |
| Oct 16 | Race and Public Space | | Kevin M. Kruse, “The Politics of Race and Public Space: Desegregation, Privatization, and the Tax Revolt in |
| Oct 21 | Sunbelt Cities | Blog #8 due Oct. 24 at 10PM | Carl Abbott “The Suburban |
| Oct 23 | Library Research | | |
| Oct 28 | Midterm Exam | Midterm Exam | |
| Oct 30 | Latinos in the West | | David A. Badillo, “Mexicanos and Suburban Parish Communities: Religion, Space, and Identity in Contemporary |
| Nov 4 | Latinos in the | Blog #9 due Nov. 7 at 10PM | Jack Schneider, “Escape From |
| Nov 6 | Native Americans in | Précis 5 due Nov. 24 at 10PM | LaGrand, Indian Metropolis |
| Nov 11 | Cities and the New Deal | Rough Draft due Nov 12 at 10PM | “Coll Thrush, “City of the Changer: Indigenous People and the Transformation of Seattle’s Watersheds,” Pacific Historical Review v. 75, n. 1 (2006), 89-117.” |
| Nov 13 | Native American Relocation | | Kenneth R. Philp, “Strive toward Freedom: The Relocation of Indians to Cities, 1952-1960.” Western Historical Quarterly 16 (April 1985): 175-90 |
| Nov 18 | City Beautiful | Blog #10 due Nov. 21 at 10PM | William H. Wilson, “The Billboard: Bane of the City Beautiful,” Journal of Urban History Aug 01, 1987; 13: 394-425. |
| Nov 20 | Public Housing | | John Baranski, “Something to Help Themselves: Tenant Organizing in |
| Nov 25 | Ethnic Identity | | Kathleen Neils Conzen, David A. Gerber, Ewa Morawska, George E. Pozzetta, and Rudolph J. Vecoli, “The Invention of Ethnicity: A Perspective from the Joane Nagel, “Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture,” Social Problems 41 (February 1994): 152-76 |
| Dec 2 | Suburban Unrest | | Thomas J. Sugrue and Andrew P. Goodman, “ |
| Dec 4 | Suburban Geography | | Todd Gardner, “The Slow Wave: The Changing Residential Status of Cities and Suburbs in the |
| Dec 9 | Post-Industrial Cities | Final Paper due December 10 at 10PM | |
| Dec 11 | Global Cities | | |
| Dec 15 | Final Exam | Final Exam | 1-3pm |
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