History of Boston

This course will analyze the modern-day city of Boston through its historical monuments, neighborhoods, and people.The course will begin with the foundations of the city and some revolutionary history, but will focus on the nineteenth century to the present.The topics to be covered include: the abolition movement, landfill and urbanization, class conflict, machine politics and reform, urban renewal, various waves of immigration (European, Latin American and Asian), racism, school desegregation and violence in Boston and its suburbs. This course will contain heavy reading, and will focus on class discussions of the reading, as well as outside projects. Students will gain a greater understanding of their city, their heritage and their own neighborhoods.This will hopefully translate into a greater appreciation of history as a field of study.

COMPETENCY GOAL 1: Students will understand and describe Boston’s foundations and role in American Revolution. Objectives:

• Read and understand text and intent of John Winthrop’s City upon a Hill speech.
• Map Boston’s original landscape, including Boston Neck and Trimountain.
• Understand witchcraft hysteria and background causes of it.
• Deliver presentation on major Boston Revolutionary figure using primary source research.
• Understand Boston’s moniker “the cradle of liberty;” understand causes and effects of Boston Tea Party and Boston Massacre, as well as the propaganda surrounding these events.
• Understand major battles in Boston area both before and during Revolution.

COMPETENCY GOAL 2: Students will understand and examine initial waves of immigration as well as abolition movement and Civil War Boston. Objectives:

• Examine and understand Irish famine and effect on Boston’s population.
• Understand anti-Catholicism and difficulties encountered by masses of Irish immigrants flooding into Boston, including “No Irish Need Apply” and Civil War conscriptions.
• See the emergence of two very different societies in Boston; one Brahmin and one poor immigrant.
• Understand sentiments behind the Brahmin ethos, especially the abolitionist movement.
• Examine major personality in abolition movement and deliver an in-depth presentation on that person.

COMPETENCY GOAL 3: Students will understand Boston immigrant experience and describe how Irish immigrants used the American political system and bloc voting to advance themselves. Objectives:

• Examine waves of immigrants coming to US from Europe in the time period between 1860 and 1920, and the lives they made for themselves in Boston.
• Understand the methods used by the US government to discourage immigration.
• Examine and understand Machine politics and how it affected the class structure in Boston.
• Understand the methods used by city planners to expand Boston and create neighborhoods; understand why some of these failed and some prospered.
• Examine and deliver presentation on a major Boston news story relevant to the immigrant experience.

COMPETENCY GOAL 4: Understand the causes and effects of Urban Renewal and the school desegregation order. Objectives:

• Understand effects of post-WWII GI Bill and baby boom, as well as increased suburbanization of Greater Boston.
• Understand and describe effects of demolition of West End, and resulting psychological trauma.
• Understand advancement of the Kennedys to national prominence, and the resentment this engendered.
• Understand the de facto segregation of the city based on redlining and changing populations within the city.
• Understand and explain the various Supreme Court cases regarding racial segregation, as well as the 1974 busing order for Boston and the role of the Boston School Committee.
• Understand, explain, and debate the causes of the racial unrest which characterized mid-1970s Boston.

Technology Learning Outcomes
The student can

• Modify the resolution and file size of a graphic.
• Select a type of graphic program to perform a task.
• Create a project using video equipment.