Chapter 1: City Beautiful or Beautiful Mess, pp. 13 - 41
Chapter 2: Fixing an Image of Commercial Dignity, pp. 42-77
There looks to be more reading here than there really is. Remember that Isenberg's book is loaded with pictures--which is not to say that pictures are unimportant. Take, for example, Illustrations 1.4 Before you look at the caption, would you realize this is a back yard in a downtown of an Ohio City? Why would anyone care what a back yard looked like? What reason might you give. Note, too, the subtitle of the chapter--"the gendered origins of a civic ideal." The growing role of women in America which you may have discussed in Core 102 or in U.S. History one, was a local thing, as well as a state and national thing. You can pay some attention to the cartoons, to wee what men thought about this.
Street view came through Bristol a little early in the year, so the flowers hanging out downtown aren't visible in the image above. However, something Isenberg mentions is: fancy street lamps. Would it be insulting to women to say these represent a version of "the woman's touch?" What do you think? Isenberg mentioned Mary Beard's book, Woman's Work in Municipalities. The book is available on line. Most people would have an image of what "woman's" work was before they opened the book. The Table of shows a bit different story, especially as one moves down the list from the earlier chapters.
In this and in every chapter, Isenberg mentions many different places in different parts of the United States. There are also many photo archives on the web, some of which might be very useful to you and your colleagues. I've put some in my resource folder and others in the general resource folder. I hope you will do the same. If you find a photograph from the past (which could be in Isenberg's book as late as the 1970s), see if you can find the same place now. Put it in your resource folder and the address on Google Maps as well. This "then and now" approach will prove useful during the course.
Regarding the second chapter, postcards may be obsolete in the age of selfies and the Internet. I can't remember the last time I sent one. I think the only time I've sent one in the last couple of decades was from London, England. Even there, I made websites of my journeys with Historic Preservation Classes, using photographs I took. Below is one I took in York near the border with Scotland. But Isenberg shows you examples in both black and white and color.
Historic Postcard of Nicollet Avenue above. Below as it is now.
Do a little searching to see if you can find then and now scenes for your urban area.
Read, in Isenberg.
Chapter 3: "Mrs. Consumer," "Mrs. Brown America," and "Mister
Chain Store Man" pp 78 - 123
Chapter 4: "Main Street's Interior Frontier" pp. 124 - 165
Here, Isenberg argues that the woman as consumer is the engine which drives downtown America. But segregation becomes a major issue both residentially and commercially, north and south. It still remains an issue to this day. Back in the era before and during the Great Depression, which stores were more likely to treat Black Americans equally--the major chain stores or the local stores? What other way was there to ensure shopping segregation? You might take a look here, which indicates the situation recently by state, city, and neighborhood. http://www.city-data.com/. We think of modernization as a matter of changing style, but as Chapter four will show, this was also a matter of building cheaper. The picture on the left is the Oakland, CA, Masonic Temple. So is the building on the right. Which looks cheaper to maintain?
Downtown New Orleans. Guess year by car. Click image for more from Shorpy
