Welcome to the home of "Shaping the American City," an Internet based course on the history of American cities and urban development. This is just a sample of the course which we hope to offer via the World Wide Web through your university.
This demonstration version is a very basic representation of the course we hope to offer. This course will eventually offer students the opportunity to create their own course in American Urban History based on their own interests. Whether they are students of history, urban planning, American culture, law, or any other number of fields, this course will offer the opportunity for students to examine the historical developments of the American city, and tailor their learning to focus on their own interests. Students can study a specific time in America's history, look at regional examples of urban development, or investigate issues of architectural and landscape design.
This course is based on a course offered by Prof. Laurence C. Gerckens, an emeritus professor of The Ohio State University, who now offers this course through the On-Call Faculty Program in Hilliard, Ohio. As a result, Gerckens has taught this course at over 70 premiere educational institutions. Gerckens is renown as an extroardinary lecturer and educator, and is the founder and Executive Secretary of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History.
To start the demonstration, please click here. Then select a time period from the time line, and away you go. Due to the demonstration nature of this document, only select materials are provided (from the years 1923 - 1925).
This concept was based on a presentation at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference in Detroit, Michigan on October 19, 1995 by Prof. Gerckens and Stephen Best, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan in Educational Studies. To obtain a copy of the paper presented at this conference, click here.
Please forward comments to sdbest@umich.edu.