Module 1: 
What is a City?

Defining "city"

The Childe Thesis

V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957)

    1. the agricultural revolution
    2. the urban revolution
    3. P-O-E-T

Jane Jacobs' Trade Thesis

desire to carry on trade ð city settlement ð agriculture

CLASSIFYING CITIES

  1. The Preindustrial City (Gideon Sjoberg)
  2. The Industrial City
  3. The Socialist City

VARIETIES OF CITIES

ANCIENT CITIES

  1. Ur, Mesopotamia (peak 3,500 BC)
    1. A ziggurat
  2. Çatal Hüyük (pron. Chatal Hooyook), in Turkey (take a virtual tour)
  3. Tell Hamoukar, recently discovered near Iraqi border
  4. Ch'in Dynasty (259-210 BC), south of Beijing, China, and other cities around the Huang Ho (China's River of Sorrow -- because it flooded every 25 years).
    1. Watch short film.
    2. Look at the Great Wall, begun in 221 BC.  Today it is over 4,500 miles long.
  5. Rome, Italy
    1. Watch short film
  6. Mesoamerica (Teotihuacán)
  7. Cahokia (Illinois, USA)

MEDIEVAL  CITIES

  1. An Introduction to Life in Medieval Times in Boston, England
    1. See these photos
  2. History of Medieval Lincoln, England
  3. Medieval English Urban History

AMERICAN SETTLEMENT PATTERNS

  1. Mastery over Nature
  2. Agglomeration Economies
  3. Transportation Technologies (from walking city to streetcar suburb)
  4. The Social Valuation of Space
  5. Growth-Promoting Policies

INDUSTRIAL CITIES 

  1. A slide show about the Industrial Revolution
  2. Excerpt from Friedrich Engels' Conditions of the Working-Class in England in 1844
  3. The Tenements of Manhattan, NY

METROPOLIS UNBOUND

  1. Where are we going?  See The American Prospect, Inc., Robert Geddes, "Metropolis Unbound: The Sprawling American City and the Search for Alternatives," The American Prospect, No. 35, November-December 1997.
  2. Sustainable Development:  What is it?  See The Sustainable Communities Network Homepage.
  3. What is globalization?  Check out the International Forum on Globalization and these Globalization/Human Rights Resources on the PBS website.
  4. The American Metropolis at Century's End:  Past and Future Influences.

MORE COOL SITES