BROOKLYN COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
Fall 2001
Professor M. L. King

History 63 WA:  

The City, 1000-1800: Zone of Innovation, Crucible of Culture

 

Description
This course will consider the evolution of the city from around 1000 CE, when the process of European urbanization begins, until about 1800, the point at which industrialization is about to transform the urban scene yet again. During this 800-year period, cities change from being, in Europe, exceptions in a rural landscape, to being the capitals of nation-states and the key centers of civilization. That evolution will be considered in two ways. For the first seven weeks of the course, we will consider the history of the city from different theoretical vantagepoints. For the second seven weeks, we shall consider the histories of individual cities or problems, and relate the patterns of their development to the theoretical frameworks earlier introduced. During two of those seven weeks, the focus will be on cities outside of Europe: Chinese, African, Latin American. A few of the questions we shall address:

Why do cities form?
What are the functions of pre-modern cities?
How do cities relate to surrounding regions?
Why do people move to cities?
Why are city dwellers different from other people?
Why can't pre-modern cities reproduce themselves?
What are the different characteristics of medieval and early modern cities?
What is the relation between cities and states?
Why do cities look the way they do?
Why don't cities go away?



Readings
This course has a heavy but manageable reading load, and draws on a wide range of materials, both theoretical and descriptive. It is essential that students complete all assignments so that classes can be devoted to discussion of material read. All students will read the major part of six books three we will read in common, and three you will read along with others in small groups. Together, we shall be able to read widely enough to accumulate a broad understanding of the development of European cities and their non-Western counterparts.

Books read by all:

Braunfels, Wolfgang. Urban Design in Western Europe: Regime and Architecture, 900-1900. Trans. Kennth J. Northcott. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Girouard, Mark. Cities and People: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Hohenberg, Paul M. and Lynn Hollen Lees. The Making of Urban Europe, 1000-1994. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.

Books read in groups:

Group A

Pirenne, Henri. Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade. Trans. Frank D. Halsey. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1925, rpt. 1990.

Hughes, Robert. Barcelona. New York: Knopf, 1992. Pp. 1-184.

Kandell, Jonathan. La Capital: The Biography of Mexico City. New York: Henry Holt, 1990.  Pp. 3-265.

 

Group B

Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979; PB ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.  Pp. 7-161.

Mak, Geert. Amsterdam: Brief Life of the City.: Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.  Pp. 1-188.

Connah, Graham. African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

 

Group C

Krautheimer, Richard. Rome, Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Gernet, Jacques. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-1276. Trans.H. M. Wright. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962; orig. 1959.

Freely, John. Istanbul, the Imperial City. Penguin, 1998.   Pp. 3-252.

 

Group D

Brucker, Gene. Renaissance Florence. Rev. Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983.  Chapters 1-4.

Johnson, Linda Cooke, ed.. Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Sennett, Richard. Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization. New York: Norton, 1994. Chapters 5, 6, 9.

 

Group E

Greenfield, Gerald M., ed. Latin American Urbanization: Historical Profiles of Major Cities. Westport CT: Greenwood, 1994. HT 127.5 .L39 1994

Ballon, Hillary. The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism. Cambridge, MA-London: MIT Press, 1991. 3-MQWF 91-8365

Porter, Roy. London: A Social History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.


Requirements

Students will write six 2-4 page abstracts (double-spaced, 10-12 point font, 1 inch margins, no covers, stapled), each ending with three questions for discussion. These must be submitted on the day that the reading assignment is due. Class participation is a component of the grade, and takes into consideration absence and lateness as well as participation in discussion and oral presentations. There will be a final examination. Qualified students may take the course for Honors after consulting with me about an extra assignment. The grade will be based on the following:

Six abstracts 60%
Class participation 20%
Final exam 20%

Academic Honesty

I subscribe to the statement on plagiarism of the Department of History at Holy Cross College (Worcester, MA): http://sterling.holycross.edu/departments/history/website/homepage/plagiarism.htm

TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Week One (8/20): Overview: Cities in History

Week Two (9/5): Medieval Cities 1
Braunfels 12-39; Girouard 3-40; Hohenberg & Lees 22-46
Abstract 1: Groups A, B, C

Week Three (9/12): Medieval Cities, 2
Braunfels 40-77; Girouard 41-66; Hohenberg & Lees 47-74
Abstract 1: Groups D, E

Week Four (Virtual Session): Renaissance Cities
Braunfels 78-109; Girouard 67-112; Hohenberg & Lees 74-105
Abstract 2: Groups A , C , E

Week Five (10/3): Early Modern Cities, 1
 Braunfels 176-219, 242-275; Girouard 115-150; Hohenberg & Lees 106-136
Abstract: Groups A (3), B (2)

Week Six (10/10): Early Modern Cities, 2
Braunfels 276-339; Hohenberg & Lees 137-178
Abstracts: Groups C (3), D (2)

Week Seven (10/17): Early Modern Cities, 3
Girouard 151-254
Abstract 3: Groups B, D, E

Week Eight (10/24): Medieval and Renaissance Urbanization
Pirenne (Group A), Martines (Group B)
Abstract 4: Groups A, B

Week Nine (10/31): Rome and Florence
Krautheimer (Group C), Brucker (Group D)
Abstract 4: Groups C, D

Week Ten (11/7): Pre-Colonial Africa and Colonial Latin America
Connah (Group A), Kandell (Group B), Greenfield (Group E)
Abstracts: Groups A (5), B (5), E (4)

Week Eleven (11/14): Chinese Cities
Gernet (Group C), Johnson (Group D)
Abstract 5: Groups C, D

Week Twelve (11/28): Istanbul and Barcelona
Freely (Group C), Hughes (Group A)
Abstract 6: Groups A, C

Week Thirteen (12/5): Amsterdam and Paris
Mak (Group B), Ballon (Group E)
Abstracts: Groups B (6), E (5)

Week Fourteen (12/12): Paris and London
Sennett (Group D), Porter (Group E)
Abstract 6: Groups D, E

 

Click here for Bibliography