Although it is likely that most historians outside of Texas will not be teaching a course on Dallas, I find it interesting because of the integration of readings on general urban history, sun-belt cities (some of which I assume are about other sun-belt cities and the sun-belt phenomenon), and Dallas.

I am wondering whether this approach is usual among those who teach courses on single cities (or regions or nations) -- an initial introduction to urbanization to offer a context and contrast to the more individualized material that follows.

The syllabus below is an edited version of the initial syllabus, excluding an initial list of books and readings that are listed in the assignments.

Course Introduction

Dallas, we are told proudly and repeatedly, has no history! In typical constructions of the city's "origin myths," history(ies) represent(s) something negative or at least qualities or consciousness that are best avoided. Ahistorical and erroneous notions stand poorly in place of understanding that might prove useful in posing and attempting to resolve critical questions of the present and the future(s). Whereas "new" or "sunbelt" cities are seen as exceptions to historical currents, sometimes but not always within a postmodernist vein, the case of Dallas is truly exceptional, extreme to the point of perversity and willful, costly ignorance. Many questions, across the intellectual and cultural compass--certainly across the arts and humanities--follow from this recognition. The course confronts both the question of Dallas' fear of the past and its revealing ahistoricity, and the challenge of initiating serious research and reflection to revise the barren intellectual landscape.

This course attempts to confront the wasteland of Dallas studies across the range of the human sciences, from a historical foundation. Combining seminar and workshop formats, beginning with an inquiry into urban and community studies and history, we will then shift into the mode of a research seminar for the second half of the semester.

Requirements:

Regular reading, attendance, and participation--in one's own as well as one's peers research projects; oral reports on readings; preparation and presentation of a research essay.

Class members will select their research topics in consultation with instructor and colleagues in the class. Projects may be either individual or collaborative, and may stem from any field of interest within the scope of the School of Arts and Humanities graduate program.

Week 1. Introduction: The Phenomena of Dallas; Reading the Signs

• Dallas videos

Week 2. Cities and Communities in American History

• Thomas Bender, COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN AMERICA (Johns Hopkins UP, 1983 (1978)
• Quickly/skim: Carl Abbott, THE NEW URBAN AMERICA. rev. ed. (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1987)
• Films (The City" (1939) [45]/ "Social Life of Small Urban Spaces"[55] or others)
• Optional: any U.S. urban history text or survey

Week 3. Late-Twentieth-Century Culminations: Post-Modern? Post-Urban?

• Reports/Optional/Bibliography ("tips of icebergs")
• Michael Peter Smith and Joe R. Feagin, eds., THE CAPITALIST CITY (Blackwell, 1987): selections. All read Chs. 1,3,4,7; oral reports on Parts III, IV, V
• Michael Sorkin, ed., VARIATIONS ON A THEME PARK (Hill & Wang, 1992):
  All read Introduction; choose other chapters by your interests

Week 4. DALLAS HISTORY: A LONG VIEW

• *Patricia E. Hill, "The Origins of Modern Dallas," Ph.D. Diss., University of Texas at Dallas, 1990
• *skim SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY; LEGACIES; JOURNAL OF URBAN HISTORY; D MAGAZINE; TEXAS MONTHLY, etc.
• Note also for this week and the next two:
  • William McDonald, DALLAS RE-DISCOVERED (Dallas Historical Society, 1978)
  • William Black, "Empire of Consensus: City Planning, Zoning, and Annexation in Dallas, 1900-1960," Ph.D. Diss., Columbia University, 1982
  • Darwin Payne, BIG D: TRIUMPHS AND TROUBLES OF AN AMERICAN SUPERCITY IN THE 20TH CENTURY (Three Forks Press, l994)

Week 5. Re-Searching Dallas

• See, eg., Harvey J. Graff, et al, DALLAS, TEXAS: A GUIDE TO THE SOURCES OF ITS SOCIAL HISTORY, to 1930 (Univ. of Texas Press Services, 1979), and also bibliographies distributed in class and list of recent articles on Dallas history
• Visit: Dallas Historical Society, Dallas Public Library, SMU, and other archives and libraries

Weeks 5 and 6:
Initial presentation of research projects. Each class member will present, for discussion and responses their subject and plan for research. This should include statement of questions and arguments or thesis; research design or strategy; and bibliography and sources. Any written materials should be distributed to all class members.

Week 7. Dallas: Recent Past

• Dallas videos *Warren Leslie, DALLAS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE (Grossman, 1964) other items listed above

Week 8-9-10.
Research time/Consultations/Progress reports/Working sessions

Week 11. Imagining Dallas?! [perhaps later in semester]

• Reports/Optional: Philip Seib, DALLAS: CHASING THE DREAM (Presswords, 1986)
• Dallas Institute for the Humanities and Culture, IMAGINING DALLAS (Dallas Institute, 1982)
• Ada Louise Huxtable, "Inventing American Reality," NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, Dec. 3, 1992, 24-29
• William Sharpe and Leonard Wallock, "Bold New City or Built-Up 'Burb? Refining Contemporary Suburbia," with responses and reply, AMERICAN QUARTERLY, 46 (1994), 1-61
• Alan Wolfe, ed., AMERICA AT CENTURY'S END (Univ. of California Press, 1991)
• Sharon Zukin, LANDSCAPES OF POWER
• John Short, THE HUMANE CITY (Blackwell, 1989)
• Dolores Hayden, REDESIGNING THE AMERICAN DREAM (Norton, 1984)

Weeks 12. Research/Writing Time

Weeks 13-14.Presentation and discussion of papers

HISTORY

Arnold Hirsch and Raymond Mohl, eds., URBAN POLICY IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICA (Rutgers UP, 1993)

Raymond A. Mohl, ed., SEARCHING FOR THE SUNBELT (Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1990)

Randall M. Miller and George E. Pozzetta, eds., SHADES OF THE SUNBELT (Greenwood, 1988)

Robert B. Fairbanks and Kathleen B. Underwood, eds., ESSAYS ON SUNBELT CITIES AND RECENT URBAN AMERICA (Texas A&M UP, 1990)

Richard M. Bernard and Bradley R. Rice, eds., SUNBELT CITIES (Univ. of Texas Press, 1983)

Michael B. Katz, ed., THE "UNDERCLASS" DEBATE: VIEWS FROM HISTORY (Princeton UP, l993)

Jon Teaford, CITIES OF THE HEARTLAND (Indiana UP, 1993)

Carl Abbott, THE METROPOLITAN FRONTIER (Arizona, 1994)

Deborah Dash Moore, TO THE GOLD CITIES [Miami, LA] (Free Press, l994)

Ira Katznelson, MARXISM AND THE CITY (Oxford UP, 1992)

David C. Perry and Alfred J. Watkins, eds., THE RISE OF THE SUNBELT CITIES (Sage, 1977)

David Harvey, THE CONDITION OF POSTMODERNITY (Basil Blackwell, 1989)
_____, THE URBAN EXPERIENCE (Johns Hopkins UP, 1989 [1985]), among his works

Sharon Zukin, LANDSCAPES OF POWER (Univ. of California Press, 1991)
_____, LOFT LIVING (Johns Hopkins UP, 1982)

Mike Davis, CITY OF QUARTZ [Los Angeles] (Verso, l990)

A. Portes and A. Stepick, EDGE CITY [Miami] (Univ. of California Press, 1993)

Larry Sawers and William K. Tabb, eds., SUNBELT/SNOWBELT (Oxford UP, 1984)

Michael Peter Smith, ed., AFTER MODERNISM: GLOBAL RESTRUCTURING AND THE CHANGING BOUNDARIES OF CITY LIFE (Transaction, 1992)

Paul E. Peterson, ed., THE NEW URBAN REALITY (Brookings, 1985)
_____, CITY LIMITS (Univ. of Chicago Press)

Edward Soja, POSTMODERN GEOGRAPHIES (Verso, 1989)

Jerry Kearns and Chris Philo, eds., SELLING PLACES (Pergamon, 1993)

James Duncan and David Ley, eds., PLACE/CULTURE/REPRESENTATION (Routledge, 1993)

National Research Academy, URBAN CHANGE AND POVERTY (National Academy Press)

Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson, eds., THE URBAN UNDERCLASS (Brookings, 1991)

John H. Mollenkopf, THE CONTESTED CITY (Princeton UP, 1983)

Roger Friedland, POWER AND CRISIS IN THE CITY (Schocken, 1983)

M. Gottdiener, THE DECLINE OF URBAN POLITICS (Sage, 1987)

Manuel Castells, THE URBAN QUESTION (Edward Arnold, 1977 [1972]
_____, THE INFORMATIONAL CITY (Blackwell, 1989) and other works

Ulf Hannerz, EXPLORING THE CITY (Columbia UP, 1980)

M. Gottdiener and A. P. Lagopoulos, eds., THE CITY AND THE SIGN (Columbia UP, 1986)

M. Gottdiener, THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE (Univ of Texas Press, 1985)

Edward Krupat, PEOPLE IN CITIES (Cambridge UP, 1985)

Lloyd Rodwin and Robert M Hollister, eds., CITIES OF THE MIND: IMAGES AND THEMES OF THE CITY IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES (Plenum, 1984)

Catharine R. Stimpson, et al, eds., WOMEN AND THE AMERICAN CITY (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1981)

Elizabeth Wilson, THE SPHINX AND THE CITY (Univ of California Press, 1991)

Sage Publications, URBAN AFFAIRS ANNUAL REVIEWS