The American city

Elective Course

In 1800 only 6% of Americans lived in cities; in 2000 this number was more than 80%. As a center of growth, power and cultural diversity, the American city has always occupied a crucial place in America’s vision of itself as a new nation. “A cruel city, but a lovely one, a savage city, yet it had such tenderness”–this quote from Thomas Wolfe’s A Vision of the City is representative of the varied cultural representations of the American urban environment as a place where fortunes and lives are made or lost. Through an examination of literature, art, architecture, photography, film and music, this course will take a closer look at some of the greatest as well as the “baddest” American metropolises, looking for a way to understand the people who live, commute, work, create, govern, commit crime and conduct business in them.