Home Owners Loan Corporation Security Map, Chicago, 1940, digitized by Mapping Inequality, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
American Cities
This course is an introduction to the political, economic, and social forces that have shaped American cities from the colonial era to the present, with a focus on the city of Chicago. We explore the growth of urban economies and types of labor, migration and immigration into cities, persistent patterns of racial/ethnic segregation and displacement, and struggles over power and resources that make up urban politics. We also pay particular attention to urban geography and the relationship between cities, rural and suburban areas. Students are introduced to multiple disciplinary approaches to understanding American cities, and take field trips to relevant sites in Chicago. This course is the foundational course for the Urban Studies minor program.
Women's Liberation supporters of the Black Panther Party, New Haven, 1969, by Linda Napikoski, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Gender, Sex, & Power in U.S. History
From slave-holding plantations to tech company offices, gender has fundamentally shaped the historical experiences of those living within the United States. This course explores the role of gender and sexuality in shaping U.S. politics, economy, and society, from intimate interpersonal interactions to global foreign policy. In this course we will not assume women or men have been solid blocks with unified interests over time, but rather have often been divided along lines of class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender-identity, and political ideology. We explore this “intersectionality” through the history of political movements including women’s suffrage, feminism, gay liberation, reproductive rights, sex-workers rights, contemporary LGBTQ rights, and the #MeToo movement.
Casa Aztlan in Pilsen, Chicago, by Seth Anderson, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 This 1970s mural by Ray Patlan was painted over in 2017.
Latinx Chicago
This course explores the history of Chicago's diverse Latinx communities from 1900 to the present, with a focus on Mexican and Puerto Rican Chicagoans. We examine migration experiences and community and identity formation within the city. We study how Latinx groups organized social and political movements for empowerment; engaged in struggles around employment, education, and housing; and confronted policing, deportation, and displacement. Through these efforts, Latinx communities shaped public policy at the local and national level. Finally, we investigate how race, ethnicity, gender, class, and religion have been understood within Latinx communities and have shaped their experiences in the city.
Ellis Island, photo by Gerson Galang, Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Immigration in U.S. History
The United States has had exceptionally high levels of immigration and internal geographic mobility from the colonial period to the present. Placing the geographic area that would become the United States into a global frame, this course explores patterns of European, Asian, and Latin American migration into a land already inhabited by mobile indigenous populations, the forced migration of enslaved Africans to the U.S. and later migration of black citizens northward, as well as the movement of migrants over the long-contested (and moving) U.S.-Mexico border. We examine how ethnic, racial, and national identities—including "American"—are not fixed categories, but rather constructed and reconstructed over time.
Detroit Industry, North Wall, 1932-1933, fresco by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum
Modern America
This course examines the major developments in U.S. history from Reconstruction to the current American political and social landscape. We will explore the rise of a burgeoning capitalist economy, the rapidly changing role of government in American society, the rise of the U.S. as an imperial power, and political and social movements that redrew the boundaries of inclusion in American democracy along class, gender, and racial lines. A central theme of the course is inequality: we will explore egalitarian movements that have reduced class, racial and gender inequality as well as the renewed growth of social inequality in the last forty years.
U.S. Marshals escort Ruby Bridges to school, New Orleans, 1960, uncredited Department of Justice photographer
History of Education in American Society
Two hundred years ago, the vast majority of Americans received less than an eighth grade education. Many of the functions we associate with schooling—the transmission of knowledge, socialization, and job preparation—took place in the home, community, or workplace. The story of the 19th and 20th century is the story of the expansion of education into a central experience in the lives of Americans, delivered through a vast network of educational institutions. This course examines the rise of the modern educational system, which both challenged some forms of social inequality while reproducing others. We pay particular attention to the role of students and teachers in shaping and reshaping the structure and meaning of education itself.
Distribution of the Slave Population, Census of 1860, Library of Congress
Who Counts? US History by Census Data
Who counts in US history? Since 1790, the official "count" of the US population has been the US federal census, used to determine everything from representation in Congress to funding for your neighborhood. This class introduces you to the many uses of census data, and also introduces you to a statistical software program, SPSS, to analyze census data yourself. The US census is a treasure trove of information - about class, race, gender, education, immigration - but it is also imperfect, leaving some people uncounted and imposing categories onto communities that do not match their experiences. By learning how this data was created, we learn about the limits of data and why history is important for data analysis.
Mexican Farm Workers, Historical File of the Office of Information, Department of Agriculture, National Archives
Latinx Oral History
One of the best ways to understand the history of a community is to talk to those who have lived it. The history of people of Latin American descent is a growing subfield of history, but much remains to be learned about Latinx migration, employment, politics, and culture; differences along lines of class, race, gender, region, and nationality; and how these experiences have changed over time. This course introduces you to the practice of oral history, or recording an individual’s personal story, which is a method often used to collect voices left out of dominant narratives. The course also draws on the narrative tradition of “testimonio,” with roots in Latin American liberation and anti-imperialist movements, in which the narrator is empowered by voicing their experience. This course guides you in conducting your own interviews with Latinx individuals.
Paula Scher's mural at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, GA
Social Movements and Reform: Senior Seminar
This course explores the history of social movements and reforms across the globe, from ancient land reform to contemporary protest movements. The course also prepares all students to write a final historiography paper about a social movement or reform of their choosing in the second half of the semester. Required of all history majors in their junior or senior year except those doing independent study research projects.
“The Condition of the Laboring Man at Pullman,” Chicago Labor, July 7, 1894
Inequality & Reform: U.S. 1865-1920
This course offers an introduction to the political, social, and cultural history of the United States between Reconstruction and World War I, as the country rebuilt and reimagined itself in the wake of the Civil War and the end of slavery. We will pay special attention to new patterns of inequality in the contexts of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. We will also examine the complexities and contradictions of progressive reform movements, including efforts to improve housing, sanitation, and labor conditions. We will look at how those transformations affected people's everyday lives and conceptions of American citizenship, and the emergence of popular mass culture through photography, art, architecture, advertising, and films.
University of California 1938, by Dorothea Lange, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34-018326-D
Why College?
Why go to college? Over time, students, families, teachers, employers, and politicians have answered this question in very different ways. In this course, we will explore the changing meaning and realities of college-going in Chicagoland from the 18th to the 21st centuries: from classical finishing school for white clergymen, to teacher-training for new cohorts of women and African Americans, to socialization into a radical youth culture, to “human capital” investment for a knowledge economy. We pay particular attention to the role of students themselves in shaping this history. Through discussions, debates, and written reflection, we will dig into the past struggles and policy decisions that shape what college means for you today.