Undergraduate Course: Social History 2.1 (ECSH08008)
Course Outline
School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | Social History 2.1 explores the social, cultural and economic history of cities in Europe and North America from the early modern period to the present day. The course examines how and why cities develop, problems of growth and change, and experiences of daily life in cities, drawing in diverse examples from Renaissance Venice, to Tsarist St Petersburg, nineteenth-century Chicago, and present-day London. |
Course description |
Social History 2.1 introduces students to the history of cities. Its aim is to provide an overview of western urbanization, introduce students to the skills and methods necessary to practice urban history, and explore the spectrum of writing on the city, from sociology to literature.
We examine the development of cities in Europe and America from the Renaissance city-states of Italy, to the shock cities of the Industrial Revolution, and the skyscrapers of Chicago and New York. In so doing the course explores how historians, urban planners, and sociologists have conceived of the problems of cities, and the initiatives they have introduced in order to control, regulate, and ameliorate the lives of the growing populations of these new urban centres. The culmination of the course is a group project, based on the history an Edinburgh street, and written using primary sources including maps, photographs, street directories, and material culture. This project is designed to give students a new awareness of the textures of the cities they inhabit, and a range of skills for discovering the history of places.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
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Co-requisites | |
Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in any first level course achieved no later than August of the previous academic year |
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites | None |
High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, a sound knowledge of the subject considered in the course;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to assimilate a variety of sources and formulate critical opinions on them;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to research, structure and complete written work of a specified length, or within a specified time;
- demonstrate an ability to make informed contributions to class discussion and give an oral presentation as required;
- demonstrate an ability to organise their own learning, manage their workload, and work to a timetable.
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Reading List
L. K. Boehm and S. Corey, America¿s Urban History (London, 2014)
G. Bridge and S. Watson (eds.), The New Blackwell Companion to the City (Oxford, 2012) [E-BOOK]
Asa Briggs, Victorian Cities (London, 1963)
A. Lees and L.H. Lees, Cities and the Making of Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2007)
P. Hohenberg and L. H. Lees, The Making of Urban Europe, 1000-1950 (Cambridge, Mass., 1985)
L. Jerram, Streetlife: The Untold History of Europe¿s Twentieth Century (Oxford, 2011)
C. Klemek, The Transnational Collapse of Urban Renewal: Postwar Urbanism from New York to Berlin (Chicago, 2011)
R.J. Morris and R. Rodger (eds.), The Victorian City: A Reader in British Urban History, 1820-1914 (London, 1993)
C. Nightingale, Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities (Chicago, 2012)
M. Savage, A. Warde, and K. Ward, Urban Sociology, Capitalism, and Modernity (London, 2002)
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Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
Additional Class Delivery Information |
To attend one tutorial group each week.
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Keywords | SH2.1 |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Erika Hanna
Tel: (0131 6)51 5215
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Summer Wight
Tel: (0131 6)50 4580
Email: |
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