Eric Alterman
MCHC Seminar 2
The Peopling of New York
Spring, 2015
In this seminar, we will investigate the political, economic, cultural, psychological and
sociological life of “the greatest city in the world." Our focus will be on the factors that have
driven and drawn people to New York since the 17th century; the different ways that various
combinations of the pursuit of wealth, fame and power when combined with race, gender, work,
and ethnicity have shaped the life of the city and the formation of its social order. We will also
look at factors that have driven and drawn people to New York in successive waves of
immigration and the ways that being in the city has shaped their behavior thereafter. And we will
also examine the roles of the people who have run things and determined the contours of those
working their way (or losing their way) up and through the system. We will pay particular
attention to social and economic avenues of success and to the various means through which
individual and group ambition has manifested itself whether in success or failure. We will do so
from a variety of perspectives, including walking tours and (possibly) class trips to key places,
but the readings will be drawn exclusively from history and literature. The reasons for the history
choices are (largely) self-explanatory. The novels are here because I think there are many kinds
of truths—often deeper kinds—that are available to us only through literature. We will also see a
few movies. Movies are not as deep as literature, but again, they sometimes teach us lessons
available nowhere else. You will all be responsible for finding scholarly sources on the history
of Broadway in preparation for our guest lecturer. You will also be responsible for finding your
own walking tour of the city to go on (with the professor’s suggestions) and both of these will be
included on the final.
You will be responsible for reading the following books. The schedule of the readings will be
announced at each class and you will be responsible for keeping up with it even in your absence.
(Your fellow students will be happy to inform you of what you missed, I'm sure.)
Frederick Binder and David Reimers, All the Nations Under Heaven: An Ethnic and Racial
History of New York City (1995) (two weeks)
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925) (two weeks)
Thomas Kessner, Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic
Dominance, 1860-1900 (2004) 2 weeks
Christine Stansell, American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New
Century (2009) 2 weeks
Joshua B. Freedman, Working-Class New York, (2000) 2 weeks
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Joseph Dorman, Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in their Own Words (2001) 1
week
Kevin Cook, Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America
(2013) 1 week
Joseph Tirella, Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America
(2013) 1 week
Jonathan Mahler, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the
Battle for the Soul of a City 2 weeks
Grading:
The grading scale is: A+ = 97% and above; A = 96-94%, A- = 93-90%; B+ = 89-87%,
B = 86-84%, B- = 83-80%; C+ = 79-77%, C = 76-74%, C- = 73-70%; D+ = 69-67%, D67-64%, D- = 63-60%; F = below 60.
Exams can be made up only in the case of a documented (i.e. a doctor's note or other official
certification of your absence) emergency. Late papers will be accepted, with academic penalty
of 1/3 of a letter grade per class session late. Late penalties continue to accrue if the paper is
turned in after the last day of class. Students are expected to attend all class meetings as
scheduled. Failure to attend class will have a negative impact on your class participation grade.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:
1) Class Participation (10 percent)
2) Book Review/Essay (10 percent)
3) Primary Group Assignment and Presentation together with Essay (40 percent four parts)
4) Take Home Final. (40 percent)
The Assignments and Grading Procedure in Detail:
1) Class participation: This course is offered as a "reading seminar" wherein we have the
opportunity to read and discuss our texts carefully, and critically. Each week we will read and
discuss historical and works that deal with a different moment, and frequently a different
subculture in the history of New York City. You need to come to each class prepared to discuss
the assigned readings, to ask questions, and to listen and respond to others' questions and
comments. In addition, you will make several in-class presentations and will take turns leading
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class discussion. Be sure to bring the assigned readings to each class. We will work with those
items in each session.
2) Book review: You will choose a novel that takes place in New York City. You will not
necessarily write about the novel per se. Instead, you will write about the issues about New York
City raised by the story in the novel during the time and in the neighborhoods it takes place. You
will infer from the author’s depiction of the story what he or she is trying to say about New York
through the novel’s characters and story. This paper should be no fewer than 1250 words but can
be as long as you like.
3) Primary Group Assignment and Presentation together with Essay (four parts)
The purpose of this assignment is to allow students to engage with some aspect of New York
City, work collaboratively, and incorporate the use of technology in a meaningful and
pedagogically useful way.
Learning Objectives:
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Develop critical thinking skills
Think differently about New York City
Assess and critique a wide range of scholarly and popular resources
Curate the information gathered in a cohesive and scholarly manner
Throughout the semester you will research information about a specific organization,
neighborhood, institution, or location in New York City. You will survey a broad range of
resources and background information on the topic and learn to assess the resources. You will
make informed observations about the topic, drawing on your own background research and site
visits. At each stage of the process, you will report back to the class about your work—through
blog posts, presentations, and a final research paper—and will offer feedback to your peers on
their work.
Assignment One: Background Research
Each group will choose a [neighborhood, institution, location, organization, etc.]. Within your
group, assign each member one or more of following topics to cover:
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Technical foundation
Necessary skills
Economics (including incentives)
Culture
Politics
Personality
Geography
While the amount of information available may vary, be sure that each topic is addressed.
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Blog Post: Select three scholarly sources and three popular sources on your topic and write a
review of the sources as a blog post. Be sure to give links to the sources where relevant or
include the full bibliographic information. Categorize your post with the appropriate topic. At
minimum, you will need to answer some of the following questions: Who is the author? The
audience? What is the main point/argument? What types of evidence are offered for the claim? Is
the author successful in their argument? What is useful about the reading? Are there problems or
errors with the argument/claim/information? What information is missing that would be useful?
Peer Feedback: You must ask questions and make comments on at least two other posts from
your group members, as well as two posts from other classmates not in your group. If you are
researching a similar topic, you might suggest another source. You can ask them to clarify a
point. You might make a connection between their topic and yours.
Report: You will submit a 5-page report on your initial background research. Your work must
include eight scholarly sources, but may also incorporate other sources, as well.
Assignment Two: Proposal
Your group will submit a proposal based on your initial research that outlines a focus for the
project going forward. While the initial research reports will be turned in, the proposals will be
posted on the class website. Just as you did with the blog posts, you will be expected to read and
offer feedback on the other proposals.
Assignment Three: Neighborhood/Institution Visit
Your group will visit your chosen [neighborhood, institution, location, organization, etc.] and
make a serious of observations. Keep in mind the background research that you’ve already done.
Be sure to take notes, take pictures (if allowed), ask questions (if allowed), etc.
Presentation: Each group will give a short (~10min) presentation using Prezi on their visit. Be
sure to embed your Prezi on the class website.
Assignment Four: Final Paper and Website
Website: The information gathered over the course of the semester, including resources, images
or other multi-media from the site visit, reviews, and your final reports, will also be compiled on
the class website. Each group will have their own section of the site dedicated to their project,
but there will also be categories that allow people visiting the site to look at similar topics from
different institutions. For example, the “Culture” category will include blog posts on the cultural
aspects for all of the projects. This will allow visitors to the site to look by topic or by institution.
Paper: Your group will submit a collaborative research paper. Group members will be
responsible for their own sections, which should be noted clearly on the final version. (Each
member’s contribution will be graded individually.)
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4) Take Home Final. This test will be comprehensive and encompass all of the material we have
studied in class and the readings we have done. You will have two weeks to complete it. See
above regarding footnoting of facts and evidence.
Honesty:
Brooklyn College takes cheating and plagiarism very seriously; if caught you may fail the course
and/or be suspended from the college. So don’t cheat. This means that you should not take the
words or ideas of another person and submit them without acknowledging the original author.
Examples of plagiarism include taking phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or statistical findings from
a variety of sources and piecing them together, without citing them, into a homework
assignment. Taking phrases, paragraphs or papers from the internet and representing them as
your own falls under this category. You must always indicate when you have used an idea from
someone else’s work; anything else constitutes stealing from others and violates both the ethics
of this class and established academic standards.
Also, this goes without saying but: No cell phones or other handheld electronic devices are
permitted in class. If you use your computer, please restrict yourself to taking notes.
Reaching me: I am at alterman.eric@gmail.com. This is the best way to reach me. (Please do not
use my Brooklyn college address). When you email me, remember to treat the correspondence as
a student/teacher conversation. Don't text me in the manner you do your friends. My phone
number, for emergencies, is 917-538-9726. My office is 2416 Boylan and I am available for
office hours for thirty minutes both before and after class, though it's a good idea to let me know
in advance if you wish to see me.
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