1. FOCUS OF COURSE
   
2. MEETINGS AND ATTENDANCE
3. COURSE INFORMATION
4. ASSIGNMENTS
5. FORMAT AND GRADING CRITERIA FOR TERM PAPER
6. GRADE SCALE USED IN THIS COURSE

1. FOCUS OF COURSE

This course explores how the study of the city in history is a tool for understanding the unique cultural milieus of civilizations throughout history. The investigation begins in antiquity by selectively exploring the unique ideas of the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans in the context of mythology, philosophy, literature and mathematics, and the unique interrelationships these disciplines have on the formulation of cities. The course continues this theme, chronologically, tracing the correlation between intellectual ideas and the physical form of cities in the context of western civilization. The exploration changes as the course moves into the industrial revolution. The focus at this chronological point is less on the physical form of cities but instead discusses the sentiments, reactions and attitudes of philosophers, economists, artists and poets in France and England towards cities that have been industrialized. The latter part of the course focuses on American cities and cities in Third World countries. In discussion of American cities, the course focuses on political activists in the late 1700's and early 1800's, and their reactions towards the evolution of cities in the emerging United States. The course then continues by exploring literary figures, primarily novelists, of the mid-to-late 1800's and their negative reactions towards the conditions of cities in the industrialized North. The city in the 1900's is described by exploring the plights, dreams and accomplishments of the ever continuum of emigrants coming to the United States. The discussions on American cities concludes with an inquiry into the ideological myth of suburbia. The discussion on cities in Third World countries is not a discussion of ideologies but is instead a discussion of reality, the reality of over population and its impact on the physical form of cities.

2. MEETINGS AND ATTENDANCE

There is no class time meeting scheduled. Class is strictly on-line.

Office Hours: Professor Knowles is available by appointment. Please call 215-204-43402 to make an appointment. office location: 810 CEA Building.

3. COURSE INFORMATION

A. Percentages making up the final grade of the course

Student research and presentation 60%

Participation in Blackboard Discussion Group 40%

PLEASE NOTE: Incompletes/Make-ups: An Incomplete or a Make-up quiz or exam will be granted only in the event of a severe illness for which a doctor's note is required.

PLEASE NOTE: Assignment deadlines will be strictly enforced: late assignments will not be accepted. All work must be completed to receive a passing grade.

B. Exam

None

C. Term Project

Due Date - April 20, 2006

Term Paper Assignment

Each student should select an author who has used the city as the backdrop for the drama of either a novel, poem, biography, or autobiography, etc. Please read the work and analysis the author’s sentiment about the city that is being used as the backdrop for the work. Substantiate your argument by giving a brief illustrated history of the city in the time period in which the work unfolds.

Suggested authors are:

Charles Dickens

Theodore Dreiser

Upton Sinclair

Taylor Caldwell

Ernest Hemmingway

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Thomas Wolfe

Herman Melville

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Scott Fitzgerald

Henry James

Thomas Mann

Sinclair Lewis

Albert Camus

Victor Hugo

John O’Hara

Louis May Alcott

Andreyeu Loenid Nikolaerich

Arthur Philips

Carol Shields

Vladislau Vancura

Josef Lada

Jan Velinger

Aleksandr Segecvich Puskin

Anton Chekhov

Wladyslaw Szipman

You may select other authors as well. Please e-mail your selected reading to bknowles@temple.edu by February

27th, 2006 . The paper should be approximately 2000 - 3000 words in length with appropriate illustrations. Paper is due in digital form on April 20th, 2006. Please e-mail the document to bknowles@temple.edu as a word attachment.

Cheating and Plagiarism:

Plagiarism means to use the words or ideas of someone else, no matter how loosely, without proper documentation.

Required Texts

"The City in History" - by Lewis Mumford

Reading Assignments

It is crucial for you to read all assignments, lectures, and listserv responses. The reading assignments in the text will be assigned on the Bulletin Board of the web site.

Questions

Most lectures have questions at the end. Please answer each question and post your answers to the listserv.

4. Lecture Topics

Week 1

Topics:Course Introduction

a. Introduction/organization

b. Man and the Environment

Week 2

Topic:

a. The City in Evolution

b. The "Three Urban Spatial Concepts"

Week 3

Topic:

a.The Concept of Movement in the Greek City

b.The Greek City as the Finale of the First Urban Concept

Week 4

Topic

a.The Second Urban Concept, the Etruscians

b.Ancient Rome

Week 5

Topic:

a.The Third Urban Concept

b.The Evolution of the Street

Week 6
Topic:

a.The City in the Middle Ages

b.The City of the Renaissance

Week 7

Topics:

a.The Baroque

b.Rome

Week 8

Topics:

a. Discussion

b.Mid-term Discussion Questions

Week 9

Topics:

a.The idea of the City in European culture

b.The City in America

Week 10

Topics:

a.American Cities: The Irenic Age

b.The Ambivalent Urbanite: Henry James/ Henry Adams

Week 11

Topics:

a.The Emergence of the Industrial City

b."Bad Dreams" Readings:

Week 12

Topics:

a.The Industrial City/Center of Cultural Change

b.Urbanism and Suburbanism

1. The Avant-garde Comes to America
2. The Decline of the Avant-garde.