I am still plotting out the various lessons that will be taught in this
course. There is one thing on the horizon that I am especially excited about as a newcomer to the state of Alabama. If all goes as planned, the students and I will travel to Birmingham to tour
Sloss Furnaces, a national historic landmark. I believe this site will help us understand how industry and technology played a role in America's emerging city life during the nineteenth century. While the original Sloss complex is no longer standing, two 400-ton blast furnaces and some forty other buildings in this complex will aid our ability to think deeply about many issues concerning modern life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will, among other things, learn about Sloss's role in putting Birmingham on the map as an important American city. As an aside, just as I used a blog while teaching "
African Americans in the City" last spring at the University of Alabama during a graduate fellowship, I will use a blog for this course. Please check it regularly to learn more about the issues being discussed in this class.
I am still plotting out the various lessons that will be taught in this course. There is one thing on the horizon that I am especially excited about as a newcomer to the state of Alabama. If all goes as planned, the students and I will travel to Birmingham to tour Sloss Furnaces, a national historic landmark. I believe this site will help us understand how industry and technology played a role in America's emerging city life during the nineteenth century. While the original Sloss complex is no longer standing, two 400-ton blast furnaces and some forty other buildings in this complex will aid our ability to think deeply about many issues concerning modern life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will, among other things, learn about Sloss's role in putting Birmingham on the map as an important American city. As an aside, just as I used a blog while teaching "African Americans in the City" last spring at the University of Alabama during a graduate fellowship, I will use a blog for this course. Please check it regularly to learn more about the issues being discussed in this class.
A similar historic site you might consider visiting is Tannehill State Park, which documents a foundry located there that was important during the Civil War. It's not as visually impressive as Sloss Furnaces, but it ties in with the area's reliance on steel production.
ReplyDeleteOh, and another potential local field trip is the Tuscaloosa Transportation Museum.
--Jeremy
Jeremy, thanks for making these suggestions. I will look into both places. One day in the future, I'd love to try something a former professor did: A group of graduate and undergraduates students essentially followed the Chicago River (as best one can follow a river these days) for two days and shared findings about the buildings, industries and people seen along the way. It was spring and still very cold. We had to get off a tour bus about two dozen times. But I learned a lot and would welcome attempting something similar in Alabama as a course project in the years ahead.
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