everything.study
21H.235

Metropolis: History of New York City

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2009

> Hitherto it had gone by the original Indian name Manna-hatta, or as some still have it, 'The Manhattoes'; but this was now decried as savage and heathenish... At length, when the council was almost in despair, a burgher, remarkable for the size and squareness of his head, proposed that they should call it New-Amsterdam. The proposition took every body by surprise; it was so striking, so apposite, so ingenious. The name was adopted by acclamation, and New-Amsterdam the metropolis was thenceforth called. > > —Washington Irving, 1808 In less tongue-in-cheek style, this course examines the evolution of New York City from 1607 to the present. The readings focus on the city's social and physical histories, and the class discussions compare New York's development to patterns in other cities.

Readings

  • Irving, Washington. Diedrich Knickerbocker’s A History of New-York . Chicago, IL: W. B. Conkey, 1806. Book I, chapter V; Book III, chapter III; Book VI, chapter V; Book VII, chapter XI. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Ordeal of the Longhouse , chapters 1-4.
    Listed reading
  • Island at the Center of the World , chapters 1-4.
    Listed reading
  • Pilkington, Walter, ed. “Speech of Onoonghwandekha at the Funeral of a Seneca, 7 April 1765.” In The Journals of Samuel Kirkland: 18th Century Missionary to the Iroquois, Government Agent, and Father of Hamilton College . Clinton, NY: Hamilton College, 1980, pp. 23-25.
    Listed reading
  • Goodfriend, Joyce. Before the Melting Pot: Society and Culture in Colonial New York, 1664-1730 . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, chapters 1-3. ISBN: 9780691037875.
    Listed reading
  • Wilder, Craig Steven. In the Company of Black Men: The African Influence on African American Culture in New York City . New York, NY: NYU Press, 2005, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780814793695.
    Listed reading
  • Reps, John W. The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992, chapter 6. ISBN: 9780691006185.
    Listed reading
  • New York Before Chinatown , chapters 1-3.
    Listed reading
  • Chants Democratic , chapters 1-2.
    Listed reading
  • White, Shane. Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810 . Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2004, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780820323749.
    Listed reading
  • Copeland, David A. “The New York Public Education Controversy, 1753-1744.” Debating the Issues in Colonial Newspapers: Primary Documents on Events of the Period . Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000, chapter 13. ISBN: 9780313309823.
    Listed reading
  • Crabgrass Frontier , chapters 1-2.
    Listed reading
  • Blackmar, Elizabeth. Manhattan for Rent, 1785-1850 . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780801499739.
    Listed reading
  • City of Eros , chapters 2-4.
    Listed reading
  • Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld . New York, NY: Vintage, 2008, ISBN: 9780307388988.
    Listed reading
  • Dickens, Charles. American Notes: A Journey . London, England: Chapman and Hall, 1842, chapter 6. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Whitman, Walt. “ Crossing Brooklyn Ferry .” In Leaves of Grass , 1855. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Schecter, Barnet. The Devil’s Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America . New York, NY: Walker & Co., 2007, chapter 4. ISBN: 970802715081.
    Listed reading
  • Commager, Henry Steele, and Milton Cantor, eds. “ Mayor Fernando Wood’s Recommendation for the Secession of New York City .” In Documents of American History, Vol. 1: to 1898 . 10th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988. ISBN: 9780132172745. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Kuo Wei Tchen, John. “Quimbo Appo’s Fear of Fennians: Chinese-Irish-Anglo Relations in New York City.” Bayor, Ronald H., and Timothy J. Meagher, eds. In The New York Irish . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, chapter 5. ISBN: 9780801857645.
    Listed reading
  • Blackmar, Elizabeth, and Roy Rosenzweig. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780801497513.
    Listed reading
  • The Monied Metropolis , chapters 4-6.
    Listed reading
  • Pratt, John W. “Boss Tweed’s Welfare Program.” New York Historical Quarterly 45 (1961): 396-411.
    Listed reading
  • Plunkitt, George Washington, and William L. Riordon. “On The Shame of the Cities ,” “Brooklynites: Natural-Born Hayseeds,” and “Tammany Leaders Not Bookworms.” In Plunkitt of Tammany Hall . New York, NY: McClure, Philips, & Co., 1905. Chapters 7, 10, and 11. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Steffens, Lincoln. “ New York: Good Government to the Test .” The Shame of the Cities . New York, NY: McClure, Philips, & Co., 1904. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Moore, Deborah Dash. At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1981, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780231050630.
    Listed reading
  • Working Class New York , Introduction & chapter 2.
    Listed reading
  • Doyle, Joe. “Striking for Ireland on the New York Docks.” The New York Irish , chapter 14.
    Listed reading
  • Hood, Clifton. 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, chapter 4. ISBN: 9780801880544.
    Listed reading
  • Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America . New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1994, chapter 4. ISBN: 9780231096836.
    Listed reading
  • Joselit, Jenna Weissman. Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940 . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1983, chapter 6. ISBN: 9780253203144.
    Listed reading
  • English, E. J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster . New York, NY: Harper, 2006, chapter 5. ISBN: 9780060590031.
    Listed reading
  • Gay New York , chapters 5-9.
    Listed reading
  • Selections of Bruce Nugent’s interview in Kisseloff, Jeff. You Must Remember This: An Oral History of Manhattan from the 1890s to World War II . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 285-289. ISBN: 9780801863066.
    Listed reading
  • Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem was in Vogue . New York, NY: Penguin, 1997, chapter 7. ISBN: 9780140263343.
    Listed reading
  • Crabgrass Frontier , chapters 9-10.
    Listed reading
  • Caro, Robert. The Power Broker . New York, NY: Knopf, 1974, chapters 34-39. ISBN: 9780394480763.
    Listed reading
  • Wilder, Craig Steven. A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn . New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2001, chapter 9. ISBN: 9780231119078.
    Listed reading
  • Working Class New York , chapters 11, 15.
    Listed reading
  • Kim, Kwang Chung. Koreans in the Hood: Conflict with African Americans . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, chapter 6. ISBN: 9780801861048.
    Listed reading
  • Sánchez Korrol, Virginia E. From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780520079007.
    Listed reading
  • Rieder, Jonathan. Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780674093614.
    Listed reading
  • Working Class New York , chapters 16-18.
    Listed reading
Sources