Unit name | Cities |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST10047 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | C/4 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Hanna |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
We now live in a world where the majority of people live in cities. Urbanization is recognized as a key driver of social and cultural change: the urban environment not only creates problems but also offers opportunities for societies across the globe. The unit explores key and dynamic themes via the methods and historiography of urban history, and will help make sense of the cities in which we live and visit.
Focusing on the history of cities across a broad geographical and chronological range, this unit will explore the historiography of urban history and will offer ways of understanding the cities in which we live and those we visit. The unit will consider examples of cities from the medieval to the modern period in order to highlight both the commonalities of the urban past and the distinctiveness of particular places. The lectures will focus on cities that epitomise trends and narratives of urbanization. These will vary from year to year, but will typically include: Shanghai, Delhi, Singapore, London, Paris, Rome, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Chicago, and New York. Weekly topics might include: urbanization in history; urban economics; urban environments; religion and the city; governance; consumption; colonialism; sex and vice; and cities of the past and of the future.
On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
Weekly:
2 x one-hour lecture
1 x one-hour workshop
1 x one-hour seminar
One summative essay (50%) (3000 words) [1-5]
One two-hour exam (50%) [1-5]
Peter Hall, World Cities (London, 1970)
Peter Hall, Cities in Civilization (London, 1998)
Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis (Chicago, 1992)
Christopher Klemek, The Transatlantic Collapse of Urban Renewal: Postwar Urbanism from Chicago to Berlin (Chicago 2011)
Marshall Bermann, All that is Solid Melts into Air (New York, 1982)
Anthony King, Colonial Urban Development (London, 2010)