The History of New York and Paris: A Tale of Two Cities.

Catalog description

This course examines the history of the modern Western city by taking New York and Paris as comparative case studies. If Paris was the “capital of the nineteenth century,” as the philosopher Walter Benjamin put it, can New York be seen as capital of the twentieth? By trying to answer this question and others like it, we will examine the nature and meaning of modern urban life and its relationship to modernity in general. We will also consider why so many prominent observers have seen fit to compare Paris and New York. The reading and lectures for the course will cover the following topics, among others: urban development and redevelopment, nature and the built environment, monuments and their symbolism, politics and protest, poverty and inequality, migration and immigration, popular music and urban culture, and gentrification and its discontents. Readings will include both primary and secondary sources.