Boston v. New York: The Colonial Period to the 21st Century

Boston v. New York: The Colonial Period to the 21st Century

Spring (9 - 13 hours) | This course is completed

10 Hilton Field Road Hanover, NH 03755 United States

Founders Room

New Course

3/25/2019-4/11/2019

9:30 AM-11:30 AM EDT on Mon Th

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$60.00

Class Meets:
Mondays: 25-Mar, 1-Apr, 8-Apr
Thursdays: 28-Mar, 4-Apr, 11-Apr

Most OSHER@Dartmouth members have probably either lived in the suburbs or core areas of New York or Boston, or visited them for business or pleasure, and noted that they were very different cities. Besides New York’s greater size, they are different in other ways.

Europeans founded both cities in the early 17th century for opposite reasons, with New York as a trading center and Boston as a Puritan “…Citty upon a Hill” – reasons that continued to influence their development over the centuries. We’ll examine some of the outsized personalities that both influenced and personified those developments. Pieter Stuyvesant and Sam Adams, Boss Tweed and James Michael Curley, Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs, and Georges Doriot will all make appearances!

This course will consist of short lectures followed by discussion. Slides of maps and buildings will trace the physical development of the cities and illustrate how growth in size played out on the available land, and how skyscrapers took advantage of expensive land. We will end with some live clips of 20th century personalities and events.

  • There is a reading packet. There will be a short list of optional texts.
Buell, Charles

 Charles has taught a number of Osher classes revolving around American social history, including Immigration, urban themes, and fundamentalism. He received history degrees from Middlebury College and New York University, but worked primarily in publishing, direct marketing, and software. These experiences, including travel, were instrumental in broadening his views beyond academia.