HIST 8630 - The American Built Environment

3 Credit Hours
Description
Explores the history, design, and meaning of ordinary buildings in the U.S. from houses and resorts to skyscrapers and factories. Topics include theories of “high” culture and “low,” definitions of house and home, the cultural significance of real estate, and how to assign value to mass-produced landscapes. Students will learn to use buildings as evidence of larger social, economic, and political trends in the 19th and 20th century, and to interpret buildings through methodologies and theories from urban and architectural history, cultural geography, anthropology, and sociology.