History 257 - City Life in Modern Europe, 1750-1914

"Our age is ... the age of great cities," wrote Robert Vaughan in 1843. Many Europeans questioned whether the greatness of cities was such a good thing, but most agreed that the history of nineteenth-century Europe could not be written without them. We will examine that history from the perspective of Europe's largest cities between the mid-eighteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Readings will explore the process of urban transformation, the new forms of experience and identity that emerged in city life, and the efforts of governments, social reformers, planners and engineers to control and discipline the new urban masses.