HIST 2086 - New York City in Revolution: Reacting to the Past

This course uses sophisticated role immersion games as a way to learn American history, and the history of New York City. The first game, New York City in Revolution, takes you to the streets of eighteenth-century New York, where you will be given a real historical character, and lots of similarly placed friends, who will then help you vie for control of the city as it descends toward anarchy in the days leading up to the American Revolution. You will risk death as you navigate the mob violence that pervades the city and will try to assert the interests of your faction, while preserving private personal goals that must remain secret. The second game, Greenwich Village, 1913, will allow you to fight for justice amidst the inequalities of the now early- twentieth-century metropolis. As you wander the bohemian coffeehouses and bars of lower Manhattan, you will encounter dreamers of all kinds. Talk of revolution will be in the air. Should women get the vote? Should anarchist ideas reshape America? Should racial discrimination be eradicated? Which should come first? Both games involve reading some of the most classic documents in American history in order to allow students to live and breathe the historical drama. Students have consistently rated this course as one of the very best learning experiences they have had in their Arts degree. One of the reasons for this is that the course provides a highly social learning environment through which students can make new friends. See the YouTube promotional video 'Learn History and Win' for more information..