Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. The course emphasizes the ways in which ethnicity, race, and class shape battles over housing, neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and governmental institutions. We examine the relationship between urban neighborhoods and suburbs, the sources of inner-city poverty and residential segregation, city services, economic constraints, and the nature of political alliances. In exploring these topics, we analyze how institutions--governments, party organizations, reform movements, churches and synagogues, city charters--shape the decisions that urban residents can make

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities—including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte—our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, Albuquerque, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, Albuquerque, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, Albuquerque, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, Albuquerque, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements. Students receiving writing credit turn in four brief papers as well as a research paper; other students write seven brief papers. There is no exam.

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. The course emphasizes the ways in which ethnicity, race, and class shape battles over housing, neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and governmental institutions. We examine the relationship between urban neighborhoods and suburbs, the sources of inner-city poverty and residential segregation, city services, economic constraints, and the nature of political alliances. In exploring these topics, we analyze how institutions--governments, party organizations, reform movements, churches and synagogues, city charters--shape the decisions that urban residents can make