Columbia Interactive - The History of the City of New York, E-Seminar 2, Colonial City: Revolutionary Battleground

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E-Seminars in This Series

E-Seminar 1
History as Destiny: The Case of New York City

E-Seminar 3
Urban Crisis: Fire and Water

E-Seminar 4
Urban Crisis: Disease, Crime, and Space

E-Seminar 5
City People

E-Seminar 6
Urban Crisis: Fire and Water

E-Seminar 7
Bosses of All Kinds

E-Seminar 8
The Reinvention of New York

The History of the City of New York
A Series of Eight E-Seminars

The History of the City of New York
E-Seminar 2, Colonial City: Revolutionary Battleground
Taught by: Kenneth T. Jackson

Description

E-Seminar Description

Kenneth T. Jackson, Professor of History at Columbia University and President of the New-York Historical Society, has been teaching a course on the history of New York City for more than three decades. In this series of online seminars, Jackson recreates the experience of his legendary Columbia course. The online seminars include a wealth of documentary photography, maps, and other illustrative material.

In the second interactive seminar, Jackson traces New York City's commercial character back to the days of Dutch New Amsterdam. He then examines New York's role in the Revolutionary War and the remarkable growth it experienced largely as a result of the Erie Canal.

E-Seminar Length:	3-5 hours
Start Date:	Anytime
Credits:	Not-for-Credit
Prerequisites:	None
Moderator:	None
Columbia Students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni:	FREE

Interested in this e-seminar? Go to the e-seminar now*. Note: Columbia students, faculty, staff, and alumni will need to use their University Network ID (UNI) to access e-seminars.

E-Seminar Objectives | Outline | Instructor's Background | Recommended Reading | Technical Requirements

E-Seminar Objectives

•	Acquire knowledge about and appreciation for the history of one of the world's greatest cities, New York City.
•	Understand the two major colonial influences, Dutch and English, on New York City.
•	Examine the major cultural traditions that influenced the development of cities in the New World (North America).
•	Examine the reasons for the transformation of New York City into one of the leading cities of the world in the nineteenth century.

Outline

1.	Dutch New York
2.	British New York
3.	Prelude to War
4.	The Fight for New York
5.	The Post-Revolutionary City
6.	New York and the Civil War

Instructor's Background

Kenneth T. Jackson is the Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences at Columbia University, where he has taught for more than three decades. The president of the New-York Historical Society, Professor Jackson is the editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City (1995) and the author of numerous books. He has been the guest of Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle and of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace but is most at home in the streets, subways, and neighborhoods of New York City, where for many years he has led all-night bicycle rides, three-hour walking tours, and all-day bus trips. When he is not in the classroom at Columbia teaching courses in urban, social, and military history, he can sometimes be found in the gymnasium playing basketball with students. In 1993 Playboy magazine named him one of the most popular professors in the United States, and in 1999 he was the recipient of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates. The New York Council for the Humanities named him Scholar of the Year in 2001.

Recommended Reading
Balmer, Randall H. A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and Culture in the Middle Colonies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Pye, Michael. The Drowning Room. New York: Granta Books, 1994. Mystery set in colonial New Amsterdam.

Spann, Edward, K. The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840–1857. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.

Tiedermann, Joseph S. Reluctant Revolutionaries: New York City and the Road to Independence, 1763–1776. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.

Technical Requirements
You will need to use a computer with Internet access to complete this course. We recommend the following minimum configurations:

IBM-COMPATIBLE PC
Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, or NT
128 MB of RAM (256 MB or more recommended)
Monitor: 800x600 resolution recommended
Connection: Internet service and 56K modem minimum
Browser: Internet Explorer 4 or above (Internet Explorer 5 strongly recommended) or Netscape 4.7 or above
Sound Card (if you can hear audio you have a sound card)
Plug-ins: RealPlayer 7 or later; Flash Player 5 or later; Acrobat Reader 5 or later
(all plug-ins are free)

MACINTOSH
MAC OS 8.6 or higher
128 MB of RAM (256 MB or more recommended)
Monitor: 800x600 resolution recommended
Connection: Internet service and 56K modem minimum
Browser: Internet Explorer 5 or above or Netscape 4.7 or above
Sound Card (if you can hear audio you have a sound card)
Plug-ins: RealPlayer 7 or later; Flash Player 5 or later; Acrobat Reader 5 or later
(all plug-ins are free)

*Note: This e-seminar is optimized for high bandwidth connections.

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