History of the City of New York
HIST W3535 History of the City of New York, taught by Kenneth Jackson, is one of the most famous classes at Columbia.[1] It is particularly well-known for its all-night bike tour of the city, led by Professor Jackson.
Requirements
- Lectures
- Readings - Empire City, edited by Prof Jackson, plus a few other urban history/theory books (such as Death and Life of Great American Cities).
- Total of 8 discussion sections throughout semester, with 300-500 word responses due for each section
- Either 1) 15-20 page walking tour of an assigned neighborhood, written in groups of three, or 2) an internship with a local organization.
- Seven walking tours of the city. Extra credit no longer granted for doing more than 7.
- Midterm (20%) and final (40%)
- Optional all-night bicycle tour of the city
Syllabus
- Course introduction
- History as destiny: the case of NYC
- Dutch outpost; English prize
- Revolutionary battlefield
- The rise to North American dominance
- Making the city livable: fire and water
- Epidemics and sanitation
- City people: new ways of living in the metropolis
- Police, prostitution, and public order
- City boss and ward boss: the legacy of Tammany Hall
- Making the city livable: cemeteries, parks, and open space
- New York City and the transportation revolution
- The draft riots: immigration and race in New York
- The Brooklyn Bridge and the consolidation of greater New York
- Tenements and tenement house reform
- The making of a world city: 1880-1930
- Black New York
- Skyscraper city
- Popular culture
- Capital of the world: high culture and performing arts
- NYC in depression and decline: 1930-1977
- The world that Robert Moses made
- Conflict and compromise: the city as refuge and haven for dissent
- If Jane Jacobs returned to New York
- The return of a giant: NYC Reemergent
