History of Philadelphia

Hist 2998-001 MWF, 10:30-11:20 a.m. Dr. Charlene Mires

Spring 1998 Villanova University cmires@email.vill.edu SAC 223, MW 2:30-4 p.m.

How has the urban environment developed and changed over time? Visions for the city, architecture, landscape, and organization and use of public space.

How have the social structures of the city developed and changed over time? Issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity.

What is Philadelphia's relationship with its historic past, and how has that changed over time?

Welcome to History of Philadelphia. In this class, we will engage in a collaborative investigation of how and why Philadelphia became the city that it is today. We will focus especially on the questions posed above, but we will undoubtedly pose new questions as the course progresses.

Although there is a textbook for this course, our class meetings will be devoted primarily to sharing with each other what we have learned individually about Philadelphia's history. We will approach history as a process of inquiry and interpretation, not simply as a matter of learning names and dates.

Through your active participation in this class, you can expect to gain:

An in-depth understanding of Philadelphia's past.

Historical context for urban issues of the present.

An understanding of how documents from the past are used by later generations to arrive at interpretations of history.

A familiarity with the historical resources of the city.

A chance to relate this course to your own interests and career goals.

This course has been designated writing-enriched.

Course materials to buy:

Required: Bissinger, A Prayer for the City

Weigley, ed., Philadelphia: A 300-Year History

Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History

ADC, Philadelphia Pennsylvania Visitor's Map (fifth edition)

Documents packet (provided in class, at cost)

Optional: Warner, The Private City (second edition)

On-line: Philadelphia Inquirer and/or Daily News. Required for the first two weeks; recommended thereafter. Available on-line: www.phillynews.com

Course requirements:

Reading responses. (10 percent of grade.)

For most weeks, in addition to a required reading assignment, you will choose another assignment from a list of electives. The assignments include articles, book chapters, and visits to historic sites and museums. (A list will be provided on separate handout.) You will bring one page of informal notes about your elective assignment to class each week. After discussion in class, you will be asked to add to your notes an impression of the time period we are studying.

One 10-page paper. (40 percent of grade.)

For this paper, you will develop a tour of Philadelphia based on a theme or time period of your choice. (Details on separate handout.) If you like, you may do this paper with a partner. If you work in a pair, you will have the additional requirement of keeping an individual journal of your participation in the project.

Midterm exam. (25 percent of grade.)

In-class essays; the class will participate in writing the questions.

Final exam. (25 percent of grade.)

Take-home essay; you will use your reading and research from throughout the semester to write a critique of the Weigley book.

Options: If student interest is sufficient, we will arrange group trips to historic sites and/or archives that have materials helpful to your paper projects. Some possibilities are listed; suggestions are welcome.

Grades

Grades will strictly adhere to Villanova University's grading criteria. As a reminder, an "A" is defined as:

"the highest academic grade possible; an honor grade which is not automatically given to a student who ranks highest in the course, but is reserved for accomplishment that is truly distinctive and demonstrably outstanding. It represents a superior mastery of course material and is a grade that demands a very high degree of understanding as well as originality or creativity as appropriate to the nature of the course. The grade indicates that the student works independently with unusual effectiveness and often takes the initiative in seeking new knowledge outside the formal confines of the course."

Initiative in this class will be especially defined as using the resources of the City of Philadelphia - its historic sites, museums, and research libraries - in connection with your electives and paper.

For other grade criteria, consult the University Catalog.

Class format:

All members of this class - students and professor - will participate in building our understanding of the history of Philadelphia. Generally, we will use our class time as follows:

Mondays: Beginning with the third week of class, we usually will spend Mondays in small-group discussions of the elective assignments you have chosen. At the end of the class, you will add to your reading response your impressions of the time period, what interests you most, and questions that you have.

Wednesdays / Fridays: These classes generally will build upon your interests and questions and add to the assigned reading. Some classes will be lectures, but others will involve discussions, audiovisuals, guest speakers, and analysis of documents. Part of each Friday's class will introduce the reading for the following week.

PROFESSOR'S DRACONIAN POLICIES

Attendance To be successful in this course, you must attend regularly.
On Mondays: You must be present for the small-group discussions in order to get credit for the reading response for the week. To allow for illnesses, bad weather, and other conditions that may cause you to miss Monday classes, you may miss up to two reading responses without penalty. After that, your reading-response grade will be reduced by one letter for each one that you fail to turn in.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, lectures and discussions will strive to add to the reading, not duplicate it. We will often spend our class time discussing documents, an experience that cannot be duplicated by getting someone's notes.
Also note: For freshmen, attendance is required.

Deadlines LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. This applies to reading responses as well as all steps in the paper assignment. If you do not have a reading response on time, it will count as one of your two allowable "skips" (see attendance). For assignments related to the paper, exceptions will be made only in cases of unanticipated, unavoidable, documented emergency.

Where to turn things in Bring your work to class. DO NOT slide papers under office doors or leave them in the History Department. If you must miss class on a day when an assignment related to the paper is due, you may fax it to: (215) 925-6919. The fax must arrive on the same day as the class meeting.

Makeup exams Midterm: Makeup exams will be given only in cases of conflict with university activities or in cases of documented emergency. The makeup will be given during a scheduled History Department makeup exam period; this may be substantially later than the regular exam time. The makeup will be different from the exam taken by the rest of the class.
(The final exam is take-home.)

How to contact the professor Office hours: St. Augustine Center 223, Mondays and Wednesdays,
2:30-4 p.m., and other times by appointment. Please don't hesitate to ask.
Best method otherwise: E-mail to cmires@email.vill.edu. Feel free to e-mail at any time with your questions or comments.
Office phone / voice mail: 519-6935.

SEMESTER AT-A-GLANCE

	TOPIC / READING ASSIGNMENT	Deadlines, Other reminders
WEEK 1 Jan. 12	Philadelphia Today. Start reading Bissinger. Scan Inquirer and/or Daily News
WEEK 2 Jan. 19	Philadelphia Today. We will spend this week identifying questions that we want to pursue in the rest of the course. Please bring to class news clippings that interest you or that relate to the course themes. By Friday, finish reading Bissinger. If this is more reading than you can finish, you may skip (or scan) pages 257-334. Scan Inquirer and/or Daily News.	No reading response required for this week. Note: Please consider attending on-campus events this week related to Martin Luther King Day. African-American topics will be an important part of our course.
WEEK 3 Jan. 26	William Penn's Philadelphia. Penn's vision for the city and the extent to which it was realized. Implications for the ethnic and religious diversity of the city. Consequences of European settlement for Native Americans and the environment. Weigley, Ch. 1, "The Founding" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective. By Friday: Submit choice of paper topic and your tentative bibliography.
Option (if there is sufficient interest, and if weather permits): Tour of 18^th Century Philadelphia. Elfreth's Alley, Betsy Ross House, Christ Church, Independence Hall, Mother Bethel AME Church, maybe more. Tentative: Saturday, January 31. Sites can be used to fulfill electives for Weeks 4 and 5. Also: If there is sufficient interest among students working on twentieth-century paper topics, an orientation tour will be arranged at the Urban Archives at Temple University.
WEEK 4 Feb. 2	The Colonial City. Benjamin Franklin's city, but much more. Social structures based on occupation, ethnicity, race, and gender. Settlement of outlying areas, including Germantown. Re-creation of the English urban environment. Consequences of proprietary government. Weigley, Ch. 2 and 3, "Village into Town" and "Town into City" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective.
WEEK 5 Feb. 9	Capital of the American Revolution. Philadelphia's break with England. Local conflicts between loyalists and revolutionaries. Consequences of the Revolution for Africans; the development of Philadelphia's free black community. How and why Philadelphia was transformed from a conservative colony to a hotbed of radicalism. Weigley, Ch. 4 and 5, "The Revolutionary City" and "The Federal City" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective.
WEEK 6 Feb. 16	Philadelphia and the Market Revolution. Local and regional consequences of national changes in the economy and in transportation systems in the early nineteenth century. Changes in the nature of work and consequences for the class structure of Philadelphia. Consequences of new transportation systems for the spatial and social organization of the city. Weigley, Ch. 6, "The Athens of America" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective. Friday: Develop questions for midterm exam.
Week 7 Feb. 23	MIDTERM EXAM WEEK Weigley, Ch. 7, "The Age of Nicholas Biddle" (No elective this week)	Monday: Submit a brief progress report on what you have done on your paper so far. (No reading response due this week.) Friday: Midterm exam.
Week 8 March 2	SPRING BREAK
WEEK 9 March 9	Nineteenth Century Disorder Ethnic neighborhoods of the nineteenth century. Causes of ethnic, racial, and anti-Catholic violence. Institutional solutions for the problems of poverty and crime. Consolidation of the city and county of Philadelphia. Reading this week by Wednesday: Weigley, Ch. 8, "Industrial Development and Social Crisis." Elective of your choice.	Wednesday: Reading response on elective (group discussions will take place on Wednesday this week).
Option (if student interest is sufficient, and if weather permits): Tour of late 19^th-early 20^th century Philadelphia: Atwater Kent Museum; Transit Museum; Reading Terminal Market; Market Street department stores; City Hall; Benjamin Franklin Parkway. If we can do this on a weekday, we can tour the inside of City Hall and go up in the tower. Sites can be used to fulfill elective for Week 10, maybe more. Date to be determined. And/or: We may be able to arrange for a guided tour of South Philadelphia, including the Italian Market. Could be used to fulfill elective for Week 11.
WEEK 10 March 16	The Evolving City: City Hall, the Civil War, and the Centennial. The city center shifts with the new City Hall. Fairmount Park and the Centennial Exposition. Center City in the age of the great department stores. Philadelphia rediscovers its historic past. Meanwhile, streetcars and railroad lines spur suburban expansion. Weigley, Ch. 9 and 10, "The Border City in Civil War" and "The Centennial City" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective.
WEEK 11 March 23	Philadelphia, the New Immigration, and the Great Migration from the South. Consequences of the new immigration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Causes and consequences of the influx of African-Americans from the South beginning with World War I. Formation of new black neighborhoods. Conflict and cooperation between long-time Philadelphia residents and newcomers. Weigley, Ch. 11 and 12, "The Iron Age" and "Progressivism" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective. Friday: Turn in partial draft of your paper (intro and one site; if working in pairs, intro and one site from each person).
WEEK 12 March 30	Railroad Suburbs. Rail transportation allows affluent Philadelphians to separate themselves from the city. This week, we will focus especially on the Main Line suburbs (including Villanova) and Chestnut Hill. No new reading this week (continuing time period from last week's reading).	No reading response this week.
WEEK 13 April 6	The Automobile City. New highways and consequences for growth of the suburbs and Northeast Philadelphia. Development of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Bridges connect Philadelphia with South Jersey. Consequences for tourism to Philadelphia. Migration patterns from the city to the suburbs. Weigley, Ch. 13 and 14, "The City Embraces 'Normalcy'" and "Depression and War" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective. NO CLASS FRIDAY (Easter break)
WEEK 14 April 13	No new reading this week (work on papers).	NO CLASS MONDAY (Easter break) PAPERS DUE WEDNESDAY. Submit two copies, plus your partial draft. No reading response required this week.
Week 15 April 20	Urban Reform, Urban Turmoil, Urban Renewal. Changes in Philadelphia politics during the 1940s and 1950s. Who benefitted and why. Connections between the reform movements and the city of today. Changes in the 1950s and 1960s, including ghettoization, neighborhood revival, gentrification, and displacement. Conflict between citizens and police. Racial and generational protests. The Columbia Avenue riots. The emergence of Frank Rizzo as a political force. Weigley, Ch. 15 and 16, "Rally and Relapse" and "The Bicentennial City" Elective of your choice.	Monday: Reading response on elective.
Option: If student interest is sufficient, we can arrange for a guided tour of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, a key component in the city's tourist economy.
Week 16 April 27	The Post-Industrial City. How and why industrial jobs left Philadelphia. The consequences for the city and its residents. Philadelphia's place in the service economy. Economic prospects for Philadelphians today. (Or, where can you find a job?) Weigley, "Epilogue" No elective this week.	Wednesday is the last day of class.

FINAL EXAM Take home Turn in during scheduled time for final exam.

Write an essay of about five pages (typed, double-spaced) in response to the following:

The only recently published narrative history of Philadelphia is Philadelphia: A 300-Year History, edited by Russell F. Weigley, published in 1982. A historian in 1998 is trying to decide whether to write a new history of Philadelphia. What would you advise this historian? Does Philadelphia need another history or not?

Writing this essay requires a detailed critique of the Weigley book, using what you have learned from your electives, from the electives completed by other members of the class, and from work done in class. The essay should demonstrate your understanding of the History of Philadelphia and your thorough engagement with all aspects of this course.

Attendance	To be successful in this course, you must attend regularly. On Mondays: You must be present for the small-group discussions in order to get credit for the reading response for the week. To allow for illnesses, bad weather, and other conditions that may cause you to miss Monday classes, you may miss up to two reading responses without penalty. After that, your reading-response grade will be reduced by one letter for each one that you fail to turn in. On Wednesdays and Fridays, lectures and discussions will strive to add to the reading, not duplicate it. We will often spend our class time discussing documents, an experience that cannot be duplicated by getting someone's notes. Also note: For freshmen, attendance is required.
Deadlines	LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. This applies to reading responses as well as all steps in the paper assignment. If you do not have a reading response on time, it will count as one of your two allowable "skips" (see attendance). For assignments related to the paper, exceptions will be made only in cases of unanticipated, unavoidable, documented emergency.
Where to turn things in	Bring your work to class. DO NOT slide papers under office doors or leave them in the History Department. If you must miss class on a day when an assignment related to the paper is due, you may fax it to: (215) 925-6919. The fax must arrive on the same day as the class meeting.
Makeup exams	Midterm: Makeup exams will be given only in cases of conflict with university activities or in cases of documented emergency. The makeup will be given during a scheduled History Department makeup exam period; this may be substantially later than the regular exam time. The makeup will be different from the exam taken by the rest of the class. (The final exam is take-home.)
How to contact the professor	Office hours: St. Augustine Center 223, Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-4 p.m., and other times by appointment. Please don't hesitate to ask. Best method otherwise: E-mail to cmires@email.vill.edu. Feel free to e-mail at any time with your questions or comments. Office phone / voice mail: 519-6935.