Empire City: New York from 1877-2001

FAIN: BH-50462-11

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (New York, NY 10036-5900)
Kenneth T. Jackson (Project Director: March 2011 to April 2016)
Karen E. Markoe (Co Project Director: July 2011 to April 2016)

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for eighty school teachers using New York City landmarks to illuminate local and national history since 1877.

"Empire City: New York from 1877-2001" consists of two one-week NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops held during summer 2012 for eighty school teachers using New York City landmarks to illuminate major themes in local and national history since 1877. The workshops use lectures, discussions, and site visits to situate New York City within broader urban history and American history. Co-directors are Kenneth Jackson (Columbia University) and Karen Markoe (State University of New York, Maritime College). The program opens with consideration of Manhattan's rise to national dominance after the Civil War, followed by a walking tour of Central Park and visit to the New-York Historical Society, where Sandra Trenholm (Gilder Lehrman Collection) guides participants in working with primary documents. Day two's focus on Gilded Age New York includes prizewinning biographer David Nasaw (Graduate Center of City University of New York) on "Andrew Carnegie and His Gospel of Wealth," and a visit to magnate Henry Clay Frick's mansion. To explore immigration, participants read Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives and E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, then experience immigrant neighborhoods including Five Points, Little Italy, and Chinatown. The program also addresses the "Black Metropolis," including visits to Harlem and the Bronx as well as readings from Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison. On the final day of the workshop, Joshua Freeman (Queens College) covers the transition from industrial to service and residential use, as seen in the Meat Packing District. Concluding the site visit at Ground Zero, project director Kenneth Jackson discusses the local and national effects of 9/11.

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