CONTENT: The intellectual foundations of modern environmentalism have shifted dramatically in recent decades.  Gone are notions of pristine and timeless landscapes, the moral certitude that Nature provides a stable metric for judging society, and assumptions that all humans share common assumptions about the environment.  The social and ecological terrain of environmental activism is slippery and fractured, and environmental historians have played key roles in destabilizing the old order and framing problems that confront the next generation.  This seminar is a conceptually-oriented exploration of the major themes of environmental history in recent years.  It will trace the impact of historical research in changing how we think about this continent’s social and ecological past.  Students will read key articles, essays, books, and films, and they will discuss the implications for modern environmental thought of consumption, identity, and place, at scales ranging from the body to transnational events.

GRADING:

Book River          25%

Participation (verbal)         10%

Presentation (written) 20%

Document Paper 20%

Final Essay           25% 

TEXTS:

Nancy Langston, Toxic Bodies:  Hormon Disruptors and the Legacy of DES (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010)

Mark Fiege, Irrigated Eden:  The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999)

Matthew W. Klingle, Emerald City:  An Environmental History of Seattle (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)

John Soluri, Banana Cultures:  Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006)

Matthew Evenden, Fish Versus Power:  An Environmental History of the Fraser River (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS WILL BE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE W.A.C. BENNETT LIBRARY