the "so what"

Map courtesy of the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas- Austin

I learned via an alumni newsletter that as many as 70 percent of the world's population may reside in cities by 2050. A UN chart , which I shared with the students in this class, tries to capture this projection. The chart helped me get to one of the "so-what's" of this course. If asked, "Why does learning about the emergence of city life during the nineteenth century in the United States matter?," one possible answer could be the following: Because the advancements in technology and the sheer will of human beings to conquer space during this century was a critical rupture - or forever changed  things -  in their lives in many ways.  Many revolutionary inventions in the years surrounding that century such as the cotton gin, steamships, steel (and many sorrows, including the westward relocation of Native Americans  and slavery) figure into that response. We might also consider how the growing ability of people to move through space, grow and build things, play and enjoy themselves more, eat better, and extend their mortality rate though sometimes at the expense of others figure in, too. By 1920, more Americans lived in cities than on the countryside even though rural communities and farms , as one recent NPR report tells us, continue to be a key way that many individuals form their identities. So what will figure into the rising urban international growth rate in the coming forty years? Many of us will be around to witness it. It is worth it to think about this if only for a moment.