Co-sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago, Roosevelt University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University
2002-2003
September 13, 2002 - "Pathological Landscape: Malaria, Politics and the Sanitization of the Land in Mandatory Palestine, 1920-1947"
Sandy Sufian, University of Illinois at Chicago
The reconstruction of the land of Palestine was indicative of a larger industrial project undertaken in Palestine during the period of British colonial rule (1920-1947). By using the case of malaria and the site of the swamp, this paper will explore the distinctive place health and disease played in realizing Zionist nationalist objectives. I argue that Zionist swamp drainage projects effected a dual transformation of Palestine's landscape, both discursive and physical, in an effort to promote Zionist ideological, practical and political agendas. In this way, this paper increases our knowledge about the intersection of nationalism, colonialism, scientific inquiry, technology and industrialization in the Middle East.
October 18, 2002 - "Putting it to a Vote: The Provision of Pure Milk in Progressive Era Los Angeles"
Jennifer Koslow, Newberry Library
In the early twentieth century, the production of milk for mass consumption raised concerns over its quality and safety. Reformers especially worried about the health of infants and small children. Yet, there was much scientific disagreement as to how to determine what constituted pure milk. This paper shows how changes in the production and distribution of milk became politicized into a public health issue in Los Angeles. In doing so, it investigates how the general public, particularly women, reacted to new technologies in relation to their family's well-being.
December 13, 2002 - "To the Rescue: The Travelers' Aid Society and the Surveillance of Passengers in Chicago's Rail Stations"
Laura Milsk, Loyola University
The train station occupies a visceral space in America's cultural and physical environment. The six depots in Chicago's downtown served as a transitional zone where newcomers to Chicago were forced to abandon their old customs and come face-to-face with the cultural mores of the modern city. This paper explores the subsequent surveillance in the depots by Travelers' Aid Society agents and procurers of vice alike, explains the complicated gender dynamics between women adrift and Progressive matrons, and looks at the perceived and actual dangers modern Chicago offered newcomers.
January 17, 2003 - "Housing Counts: Statistical Dilemmas in Twentieth-Century American Social Policy"
D. Bradford Hunt, Roosevelt University
This paper examines in detail the reasons behind the construction of high-rise public housing in Chicago. Bureaucratic obsession with cost is at the center of the story. Ultimately, administrators in Chicago and Washington understood the problematic nature of high-rise designs but proceeded anyway, with disastrous results.
February 14, 2003 - "The Driver, the Car, and the Road: U.S. Automobile Vacationing Before 1920"
Robert Buerglener, University of Chicago
This paper analyzes the relationship between drivers and automobile touring in the early twentieth century in the United States. Many contemporary commentators promoted touring as one of the primary reasons people should own and drive cars, and by the era of the first World War, boosters emphasized touring as a patriotic duty. Yet, when actual drivers commented on their trips, they focused on other aspects, particularly social ones. While drivers may have been seeking a version of domesticated nature through driving, they were doing so in the company of family and friends as part of larger patterns of sociability, leisure time use, and enjoyment.
March 14, 2003 - "The Politics of "Boondoggling:" The Works Progress Administration and Welfare as We Once Knew It"
Jason Smith, Harvard Business School
Although the term "boondoggle" has remained part of the American political vocabulary, between 1935 and 1938 New Dealers were able to counter effectively critics who charged that the New Deal public works projects were wasteful and inefficient. Their success was due, in part, to the national scope of New Deal public works programs. As the U.S. Community Appraisal and other surveys taken by the Works Progress Administration indicated, localities wanted their WPA projects. An examination of how the WPA functioned at the level of the project site better demonstrates how New Deal public works became controversial political issues. This paper argues that the issue of patronage provides a superior guide to tracing the power and limits of the New Deal.
May 9, 2003 - "The Automobile in the Garden: Dearborn, Michigan, 1920-29"
Heather Barrow, University of Chicago
Individuals interested in giving papers in the future should contact Richard R. John, History Department M/C 198, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 South Morgan Street, Chicago, IL 60607-7109; phone: (312) 996-8569; e-mail: rjohn@uic.edu.