This required course introduces master's students to key ideas in planning history, thought, and practice. Through a guided survey of key historical precedents, theoretical approaches, and contemporary planning practices across a range of sectors and geographic contexts, students will gain a critical understanding, and indeed appreciation, of a range of topics and issues in planning. The course traces the evolution of the discipline and profession in North America in the 20th century, discussing some key moments in planning history, the contentious and 'dark side' of the profession, the forces shaping planning and its outcomes, the dilemmas (political, ethical, moral, logistical, and other) and challenges that planners face in everyday practice, and the mechanisms through which they pursue and enact change towards different ends. Through course materials, in-class activities, and interactions with practitioners, we will consider longstanding debates in planning such as those around professional power, expertise, legitimacy, and hubris; planning's disciplinary niche; and how planners define and achieve the 'public interest' in their quest to build better cities and communities. In doing so, this course actively centers the aims of the Graduate Planning Program Mission. The course enables students to examine the tensions and synergies between theory and practice with a view towards bridging imagined gaps. Through examples, the course equips students to develop normative and practical frameworks for fostering "sustainable, accessible, beautiful, and just" places through planning.