Emil Pocock, History and American Studies, Eastern Connecticut State University


 AMS 420 / HIS 420
Seminar in American Civilization
Spring 2008
. 
American Suburbs
Prof. Emil Pocock

  Tuesdays 4:00-6:45  PM
  
Levittown 1954
Family in Levittown, New York, c1954.
     The major purpose of the senior-level seminar is to write an original research paper of 15 to 20 pages on some approved topic concerning suburbs in America since 1850. Class time provides necessary historical background, introduction to secondary and primary sources, how to write a research paper, discussion of required readings, and periodic reports on progress.

    Suburban America is a broad subject that includes not only the physical creation of different sorts of suburban residential areas, but many closely related topics as well. Among the issues that may be considered for research include suburban house architecture, late-20th century gated communities, the baby boom phenomenon of the 1950s, the role of inter-state highways on the growth of suburbs, shopping in suburbs, utopian suburbs, tract developments, novels set in suburbs, growing up in suburbs (especially teen culture), reactions against suburbs, suburban growth in Connecticut, and the suburbanization of work places.

     This course fills the seminar requirement for History and History/American Studies majors. History and Social Science majors may take this seminar in place of a colloquium. The course is limited to 15 students and usually fills up during the spring registration period.  If you are still hoping to get in, attend the first class.

A useful introduction to Levittown with original photographs and documents can be found at:       
Levittown: Documents of an Ideal Suburb.  (The photograph is from that site.)

Required Readings
   
Buy at the ECSU bookstore or your favorite bookseller
   
   Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier (Oxford University Press)

Any on-line reserve readings will be posted later


Announcements

Research Topics Taken

This page will change throughout the semester.
Check back from time to time for announcements, links to useful www sites, and other information.


Other Pages Linked to this Class
General suggestions for finding sources

Writing Help
General suggestions for writing, formal style, notes, and biblioghraphies
What is the AMS/HIS 420 Seminar?

AMS 420, the Seminar in American Civilization, is offered about once every four semesters. If you are a History/American Studies major and are ready to take your seminar, enroll in AMS 420 when it is offered.

If  AMS 420 is not scheduled during your junior or senior years, you may enroll in a HIS 400 seminar that has a US history topic. Your  proposed research essay must be on an interdisciplinary topic (one that combines history and some other discipline, such as literature or art) in order to satisfy the requirements of American Studies. Get written approval from Prof. Pocock as soon as you have a topic.

HIS 420 is always cross-listed with AMS 420 and is the same course. HIS 420  fulfills the History seminar requirement and the 400-level course for History/Social Sciences majors.

American Studies Seminar Topics SInce 1996

                                                Fall 1996: Landscapes of America
                                                Fall 1998: Americans at Play
                                                Fall 2000: World's Fairs and Centennial Exhibitions
                                                Fall 2002: American Disasters
                                                Fall 2004: Utopian America
                                                Fall 2006: Shopping in America
                                                Spring 2008: Suburban America
                                                Spring 2010: The Future as History (tenative)

History Department   /   American Studies    /   Pocock Home
     
Created and maintained by Emil Pocock, pocock@easternct.edu.  Last modified Jan. 18, 2008.
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