URB 320 Urban Communities and Populations

Midterm Exam: Review Sheet

Fall 2013
When is the exam? Wednesday October 23, regular class time
What will the exam look like? The exam will consist of:
10 multiple choice question [2 pts each]
3 short answer questions ( a short paragraph) asking you to link together key ideas [ 5pts
each]
1 essay question (chosen from the questions below: two of the four will appear on the
exam, you will need to write on one of them) [10pts]

What will the exam cover? The exam will test your understanding of the material covered during
the first 8 weeks of the class. You will be tested specifically on: the history of urbanization,
contemporary trends in urban growth, urbanization in the developed versus developing world,
theories of slum development, rural to urban migratory patterns, the Chicago School of
sociology, the idea of an urban community, federal immigration legislation, and theories of
urbanization and urban culture.
Sample multiple choice questions:
What was the primary impact of the 1924 Immigrant exclusion act:
A) It limited immigration from Asia
B) It limited immigration from Latin America
C) It limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe
D) It limited immigration from North and Northwestern Europe
Sample short-answer questions:
Unless otherwise instructed, answers should be written in complete sentences, and should be
roughly a paragraph (3- 4 sentences).
1) According to Edward Glaeser, why are slums good?
2) According the Orsi reading, why where the Haitians not considered black?

Essay Questions
Below are four questions. I will put two of these on the exam, and you may choose one to write
on. While you shouldnt worry too much about commas, or spelling, clarity is still important.
The easier the essay is to read in terms of clarity, and organizationthe better chance Ill have
of getting what you are trying to say.
1) Mike Davis, Gordon Childe and David Harvey all suggest that the idea of surplus is
important for understanding cities, explain how each of them use the term, and if and
where their definitions overlap?
2) In class, I argue that parades like the St Patricks Day parade or the West Inidian
American Carnival, are as much about celebrating identity as they are about constructing
identity; what do I mean? And why such public events?
3) In his book The Transplanted John Bodnar states that:
The movement to America of millions of immigrants in the century after the
1820s was not simply a flight of impoverished peasants abandoning
underdeveloped, backward regions for riches and unlimited opportunities offered
by the American economy
What does Bodnar mean? And why is the story more complicated?
4) Joseph Berger, Edwidge Danticat, Claude Brown and Nancy Foner all write about
immigrant in New York. Each, however, offers a different take. How do these authors
differ, how are their descriptions of New York different and why, if at all, do such
difference matter?