HIST 5900 New Jersey Urban History

This course examines in New Jersey, the most urban state in the nation. It offers readings about urban New Jersey and urbanization in general, but it primarily focuses on research on the urbanization of a particular city, town, community, or neighborhood in the state. It includes a chronological survey of New Jersey cities from the colonial era to the present and analyzes the historical forces that affect the location, spatial form, political economy, and social geography of cities and their surrounding suburbs. The course looks at how and why cities in the state evolved; the economy of the region; the neighborhood change process; the role of mass transit and the automobile; the suburbanization process; social and residential mobility; the effect of government programs for highways, urban renewal, and housing; the current status of cities; and their historiography.
Credits: 3.0