History of the City of New York

Columbia University W4712x
Professor Kenneth T. Jackson
Tu-Th 9:10-10:25
417 International Affairs - Altschul Auditorium


Due to technical difficulties, the online Signup page has been removed.
However, we are looking for short reactions and writeups of the field trips. Email submissions to [email protected] or bring them to Professor Jackson in class. Postings are subject to editing and may be posted with or without names, but please put your name on the writeup itself.

Review Sessions for Final Exam:

Undergrad Students T.A. Time Location
Abruzzo - Cawse Nancy Tues., Dec. 15 @ 9:10 401 Hamilton
Chan - Fisher Thorin Thurs., Dec. 10 @ 10:45 717 Hamilton
Fonteboa - Horton Tom Tues., Dec. 15 @ 9:10 403 Hamilton
Hricko - Lewandowski Andy Tues., Dec. 15 @ 9:10 404 Hamilton
Leykum - Nightingale Beverly Fri., Dec. 11@ 10:00 403 Hamilton
Nunez - Rulli Greg Tues., Dec. 15 @ 9:10 407 Hamilton
Rutkowski - Toomey James Tues., Dec. 15 @ 9:10 413 Hamilton
Torres - Zivin Bob Mon., Dec. 14 @ 10:00 503 Hamilton

The class now has a CUBBoard page! Email posts to [email protected] or post directly to the page at https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/bboard/983/hist4712-001/index.html. Use your CUNIX ID and password to access the page and send messages. The Board is resticted to members of the class.

Use this page to check for events and to ask questions to your classmates, TAs or Prof. Jackson. The posts go up overnight, so you won't see them immediately. For immediate responses, use email.


Course Requirements

Syllabus and Lecture Topics UPDATED

Field Trip Summary Page NEW

NYC Links NEW


Contact Information

TAs:
Beverly F Gage - bfg5

Gregory L Parker - gpl8

James Daniel Delbourgo - jdd17

Thorin Tritter - trt4

Nancy Ann Banks - nab19

Poth Andrew McStay - pam60

Robert Douglas Lifset - rdl13

Thomas Woods - tw57


"The city, the city my dear Brutus - stick to that and live in its full light. Residence elsewhere, as I made up my mind in early life, is mere eclipse and obscurity to those whose energy is capable of shining in Rome."

Marcus Tullius Cicero


"Below, here by the water side, where the bowsprits of ships stretch across the footway, and almost thrust themselves into the windows, lie the noble American vessels which have made their packet service the finest in the world."

Charles Dickens (1842)


"It is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal. Its politics are used to frighten children. Its traffic is madness. Its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it - once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no other place is good enough."

John Steinbeck


"New York was an enchanted city to me. I wandered the streets, from the soaring imperial towers of downtown, along the East River docks, smelling of spices and the clipper ships of the past, through the swarming East Side - alien towns within towns - where the smoky glare of miles of clamorous pushcarts made a splendor of shabby streets.... I knew Chinatown and Little Italy, Sharkey's and McSorley's saloons, the Bowery lodging houses and the places where the tramps gathered in winter; the Haymarket, the German village, and the dives of the Tenderloin. The girls that walk the streets were friends of mine, and the drunken sailors off ships from the world's end. I knew how to get dope, where to go to hire a man to kill an enemy. Within a block of my house was the adventure of the world; within a mile was every foreign country."

John Reed


"New York City, the incomparable, the brilliant star city of cities, the forty-ninth state, a law unto itself, the Cyclopean Paradox, the inferno with no out-of-bounds, the supreme expression of both the miseries and the splendors of contemporary civilization, the Macedonia of the United States. It meets the most severe test that may be applied to the definition of a metropolis - it stays up all night. But also it becomes a small town when it rains."

John Gunther


"If you live in New York, even if you're Catholic, you're Jewish."

Lenny Bruce


"There is no question there is an unseen world; the question is, how far is it from midtown, and how late is it open?

Woody Allen


"I am not afraid to admit that New York is the greatest city on the face of God's earth. You only have to look at it from the air, from the river, from Father Duffy's statue. New York is easily recognizable as the greatest city in the world, view it any way and every way - back, belly and sides."

Brendan Behan


"The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from."

Moss Hart


"I love the West. But I live in New York. Not many people know that, that I live here and that I cannot conceive of living any place other than New York City."

Robert Redford (1995)


"When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough."

Fran Lebowitz


"In the end, we will only conserve what we love, we will only love what we know, and we will only know what we are taught."

Baba Dioum