Commerce and Culture in the Modern City

Modern cities transformed economic power into cultural capital. We will look at this process through the study of the built environment, art and commerce, the cultural industries, museums and cultural institutions, along with city views in print and photographic form. This course will focus on three cities— London in the eighteenth century, New York in the nineteenth century, and Tokyo in the twentieth. Students will give presentations on other cities of their choice in the final weeks of the course. We will pay special attention to questions of the visuality and spectacle of the city to take advantage of the fall Focus Gallery exhibit “Visualizing 19th Century New York.” Students will prepare a final project on the city of their choice, in either paper or digital form. 3 credits.