Category Archives: HIS304-S2006

Reading the Suburbs

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Schedule for March 27-31

Monday March 27
Turnpikes & Levittown

Post a comment to this blog (click below on "comment") with your impressions about the relationship between housing development and freeway expansion. I want us to begin this conversation with your impressions about post-war American suburbs. What was the driving force behind a change society? When did the most dramatic changes occur (which decade: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, etc.?)? What would you like to know about the relation between cities and suburbs from the 1950s through the 1980s? Do you have questions that you would like to have answered this week (and into next?)

Wed., Mar. 29
Groups 1 & 2: •

Jackson

,
“CH11: Federal Subsidy …,” “CH12: The Cost of Good Intentions” *
Groups 3, 4, & 5: •

Jackson

, “CH13, “The Baby-Boom …,” and “CH14, “The Drive-In Culture …”

Friday, March 31
Group 1, 2, 3:  Cohen, A Consumers’
Republic, Chapters 5 & 7—Residence & Segmenting *
Groups 4 & 5: Malcolm Gladwell, “The Terrazzo Jungle,” from The New Yorker *  and  Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic, Chapter 6—Commerce *

Interview Log Form

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Click on the following link to find the Interview Log Form.

Use this form to "log" your interview. Describe each minute of the interview. What happened, what did the interview subject say, what key names or organizations were mentioned, what was the key story idea or (more likely) what were the key ideas, what year is covered, is it worth pulling a brief direct quote? If it is quotable, then put the quote into the log, with quotations marks around it, of course.

Every five minutes or so, you should stop and take stock. Do you have the gist? Does it make sense to you? Remember that these do not have to be complete sentences, but they should be complete and clear ideas, separate each thought with semicolons and try to spell correctly.

Logging an interview should take about 1 hour. When you are done, I want you to answer the following questions:

  1. What were the best five periods of the interview, and why?
  2. What did you (or the interviewer) do well?
  3. What could you (or the interviewer) have improved upon?
  4. What additional questions would you ask this interview subject, if we had them back?