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You will create a final project
on a topic of your choosing. The project may be a web
page (1 to 2 megabytes), historical
fiction (10-12 pages, one-and-a öhalf spaced) or research
essay (8-10 pages, one-and-a öhalf spaced). For due dates see
Course Requirements and Due Dates
link.
Please see the Web
Page Tutorial and the Research
Essay Tutorial for help creating these projects.
You may create your own web page
that we will link to the main web site. The goal is to use the visible
form of the city, along with other multimedia materials such as maps,
paintings, songs, and documents, to discuss a central questiion in New
York City history and culture. The goal is
to create virtual experiences that connect the cultural products of
the city (paintings, songs, books, ideas, institutions, laws, habits...)
toÊ physical locations within
the city (rooms, buildings, sewers, streets, neighborhoods, districts...)
and, in so doing, to advance your arguments concerning the city.
Just as with an essay, I will ask
for your topic and sources, then an ãoutline,ä Êãrough draftä and ãfinal draft.ä The topic should be of your own
choosing (You may peruse the list of essay topics, below, for ideas).
The sources may be traditional or new media sources. The outline for a web site is a diagram or chart showing your argument
broken down into sub-topics and how each topic links to the others.
The diagram should look something like this:
The outline of a web
page consists of your individual topic, a diagram of your web (home
page and linked pages) and a list of five web sources and five books
you are using as sources. Write out your topic and a bibliographic list
of five web sites and five books. (For citation form see the research
essay tutorial) Diagram what you think your personal web might look
like. Think of this as an essay outline and each page as a body paragraph
(see Research Essay tutorial).
The rough draft should
be a rough version of the webpage that can be viewed by a web browser.
It should include a home page with an image (map, painting, building,
person, etc.) introduction, thesis and links to supporting pages. The
home page should be finished, while the supporting pages may be in varying
states of completion. Remember to keep track of all citations and to
be collecting primary and secondary sources, visuals and texts, books
and web pages. Shape and revise your argument as you look for support.
Revise your diagram as you go.
The final draft should
be ready to be published as a link to the course web page. It should
be complete, including citations, bibliography, all links. You may want
to consider links not only to outside pages on the web, but also to
other pages constructred for the course by fellow students. For more
help see Student Web Pages Tutorial link.
Choose a topic in New York History
and write a well-constructed 8-10 page essay pursuing an original thesis.
(See Research Essay Tutorial)
Some Possible Essay Topics:
New York Exceptionalism: Entrep™t
and Entrepreneurs Leislerâs Rebellion: Culture and
Class in Early New York New York vs. Boston: Two Visions
of the American Dream Slavery and the Slave Trade in New
York Pledging Allegiance: New York Loyalism
and the American Revolution Dueling Capitals: New York and Washington,
DC Gridded City: Determinants of New
Yorkâs Form in the 19th Century The Erie Canal and New Yorkâs Rise:
Boosterism Artisanal Republicanism: Class Consciousness
in Jacksonian New York Reform of the Slums: The Motives
of Moralism City of Women: Gender and Moral
Reform Gender and the Invention of the
Suburbs The Great Awakening: Abolition,
Temperance and the Role of Women Transcendentalism in New York: Literature
and Art The First Suburbs and Anti-Urbanism Central Park: Whose Park is it Anyway? Plymouth Church: Abolition and the
Civil War The Draft Riots: Class and Race
during the Civil War Empire City: Progressivism Meets
the Industrial/ Immigrant City The Architecture of Capital: The
Skyscraper The Culture of Consumption: Ladies
Mile and the Department Store The Rise of the Apartment Building The Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol Consolidation and Brooklyn Identity Baseball Americanism How The Other Half Lives: The Origins
of Slum Clearance Crime, Gangs, and Ethnic Benevolence Machine Politics: Pro and Con Ellis Island: Fact and Symbol Nativism in New York Amusing the Million: Coney Island
and the Uses of Recreation The Great Migration and the Harlem
Renaissance Jewish Harlem to Black Harlem: The
Dynamics of Social Space Making of a Ghetto: Harlem Renaissance
to Urban Renewal The Red Scares and the Origins of
McCarthyism The Life and Death of Village Radicalism Cities of Tomorrow: Regionalism
and Planning in the 1920s Urban Transportation and City Form:
The Role of the Rails Reshaping New York: LaGuardia and
Moses Robert Moses: Man or Myth Private Projects: Metropolitan Life,
Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village The Origins of Public Housing: Moses
and Wagner WPA NY: The Depression and the American
Dream in the Arts (Film, Painting, Music, Photography, Sculpture) Ford to New York: Drop Dead!- Origins
of the Fiscal Crisis The Assassination of New York: De-Industrialization Urban Gangs: Pathology or Adaptation? Whose Art is it Anyway: Public Art
in New York Megastores Meet Mom and Pop: The
Debate over Large-Scale Retailing in the City
You may choose one of the texts
we have read for the literature course, or a piece of fiction of your
own choosing, and do a historical analysis of the ways in which the
text grows out of its temporal context: race, class, gender, politics,
etc. You may also choose your own topic with my approval.
This writing assignment would be
best started early on in the semester, and I urge you to use your journals
as a "testing ground" forÊ
both your historical and narrative drive.ÊÊ
Your historical period of choice may derive from any of the units
we cover in class, from your work on a historical tour, from the literature
we read or it may be of a period we don't cover, though it must be pre-1945.Ê
This assignment requires that you
immerse yourself in the era about which you are writing; be especially
aware of clothing, grooming, transportation, existent and non-existent
avenues, buildings, subway lines and el trains, gender roles, race relations,
ethnic demography, city services infrastructure (garbage collection,
sanitation, plumbing, electricity, elevators), cultural attitudes (how
people behave, express and present themselves on the street or in private,
how they might react to certain sights, people, sounds, scents--remember
what was once inoffensive may be offensive today and vice versa) and
mobility (not only how one got around the city but who could travel
in what way, and where).
Work on a concise plot line or strive
to create a vivid character sketch or diary entry.Ê Overly complicated plot lines or rigorously
complex characters will make it difficult for you to contain the writing,
and I would like you to strive to keep your writing to five pages.Ê Please meet with me if you are worried about
how to create a successful and brief plot line; I would be happy to
talk about plot and plotting with you. |
