Geography C160B (Cross-listed with Environmental Design C169B and American Studies C112B)
American Cultural Landscapes, 1900 - Present
Spring 2004



Return to Geography Course Pages

Link to Official Site
Instructor: Paul Groth
email: pgroth@berkeley.edu
office phone: 642-7510
office: 486 Wurster Hall
office hours: T 3-5, email or door sign up
 Class Location: 112 Wurster
Class Time: TuTh 11-12:30

Course control number: 36532
Units: 4
GSI:
email:
office phone:
office: 334 Wurster
office hours:
101 Tuesday 1-2 170 Wurster
102 Wednesday 12-1 108 Wurster
103 Thursday 10-11 104 Wurster
104 Thursday 4-5 172 Wurster
105 Tuesday 12:30-2 108 Wurster

Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
This course introduces ways of seeing and interpreting American histories and cultures, as revealed in everyday built surroundings—homes, highways, farms, factories, stores, recreation areas, small towns, city districts, and regions. The course encourages students to read landscapes as records of past and present social relations, and to speculate for themselves about cultural meaning.

Note that although this course deals with culture, and America, it does not deal equally with three different cultures. Thus, it does NOT satisfy the University’s American Cultures requirement.
Prerequisites: None. You may take this “B” course even if you have not had the “A” course.
Non-majors are enthusiastically welcomed.
Required texts: The cultural environment itself is the basic course text, which you will read with the aid of the following required books (prices are approximate, as of October 2002):

1. A xeroxed course reader, ca. $35.00
2. Paul Groth, AC 15 (the Oakland tour guide, also xeroxed), $15.00
3. J. B. Jackson, Landscape in Sight: Looking at America, $18.00
4. Daniel Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, $18.00
5. Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (any edition is OK), $5.95
6. Joan Didion, The White Album, $13.00

The reader and the Oakland tour guide, AC 15, are both available at Copy Central, 2560 Bancroft Way. The other texts are available at Campus Textbook
Exchange, 2470 Bancroft Way. If you cannot afford them all, the texts are listed in order of importance. All will be on reserve in the ED Library.
For more information: If you have not yet bought the reader--which has the detailed syllabus at the front and all the assignment guides at the back—those documents are posted outside Paul Groth’s office, 486 Wurster.
A new course web site is under construction at: http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/courses/ed169/
REQUIREMENT SET ONE--If you have NOT taken the "A" course:
1. Midterm exam, with slide interpretation 15%
2. Discussion section participation and Oakland tour 25%
3. A research essay of eight to ten pages 25%
4. Final exam, with slide interpretation 35%
Discussion sections will include several short exercises; each student will also be asked to give a two-minute summary of one required course readings in section. Discussion section grades—which, as you will note, are worth one-fourth of the course grade--are based on attendance, section participation, timely completion of section exercises, and the general quality of section exercise work.

WARNING: In order to pass this course, students must not only complete the midterm, the final exam, and the paper but also attend lectures and sections regularly. You should not take this course if you think you can routinely skip lectures and sections, and still pass the exams. That may be possible in other courses, but not this one.

REQUIREMENT SET TWO--Options if you have ALREADY TAKEN the "A" course:
The new essay option: You may write a new research essay just as you did in the "A" half of the course, for the same grading proportions (paper, 25% of your course grade, midterm 15%, sections 25% and final, 35%).
The book comparison option: Since you have already written a full-sized essay for the other half of the course, you might want to develop other writing skills. If so, select a pair of contrasting books from the book comparison guide at the back of the course reader, and then prepare a critical and evaluative comparison of them, from three to no more than five pages long. Your book comparison will count for 15% of your grade; the midterm, 15%; sections 25%; and the final, 45%. In other words, the book comparison option, because it is a shorter and simpler exercise than writing a research paper, makes up a smaller proportion of your course grade and puts more emphasis on the final exam. Experience in taking the other half of the course usually helps students do fairly well on exams. The book comparison is due on the same date that research essays are due, and the same late penalties apply.

FINDING OUR OFFICES
Paul Groth's office: 486 Wurster Hall / Phone: 510-642-7510 / E-mail: pgroth@berkeley.edu

Room 486 is on the south side of Wurster, facing the law school and College Avenue. For those new to Wurster Hall, remember that the building has TWO different fourth floors, not connected to each other. Use the south elevator or the stairs next to that elevator to reach 486 Wurster. After the first week (during which students may drop by at any time the office door is open), Paul Groth posts a sign-up sheet by his office door. If you cannot make a time you have signed up for, please call so someone else can use that slot. Drop-in folks can be accommodated when there is a no-show, or if prior appointments have been shorter than scheduled.

The GSI office for Graduate Student Instructors: 334 Wurster Hall

Room 334 lies midway between the red and blue elevators and stairs, right next to a little stairway between the second and third floors of Wurster. No appointment sheet; first come, first serve.

Return to Top