The Peopling of New York City:About

From The Peopling of New York City

This seminar's focus will be the people, politics, economics, history and law that have shaped New York City's identity. Emphasis will be placed on the influence of the working lcass in particular, and the role played by gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and class in shaping New York City's political and economic identity. Our approach will be to place New York's experience into a larger contextual base by briefly examining the issues confronting the immigrant experiences in other cities to establish what, if any, uniform patterns of development may exist in hopes of informing out understanding of New York City's experience. Various New York City immigrant waves and experiences will be compared in an effort to arrive at a deeper understanding of the commonalities and differences in the experiences of each. Important issues such as assimilation, Americanization, and class power will be examined. The course will grant special emphasis to those New York City communities/neighborhoods such as Harlem, Chinatown and Little Italy whose character, for better or worse, has shaped public perception of the people who have populated the city over time.