HIST 110 - Introduction to Environmental History

(3 S.H.)

In this course, students will receive a broad introduction to the field of environmental history. Important concepts and methods associated with the field will be presented in the context of American history, though the course realizes global inter-connections of themes and material over time. Units in the course will range chronologically from the pre-Columbian world to the modern, industrial United States. Since the early 1970s, the field of environmental history has emerged as an important sub-field of history, or way of analyzing the past. Though practitioners offer different definitions of the field, they agree that at its base level, environmental history is the study of the relationship between humans and their physical environments. This relationship will be explored through dialogues between humans and the natural world over time. Topics include, but not limited to, the role of germs, (for instance, in the colonization of North America); the ways in which human envisioned and molded the natural world (through agriculture, industrialization, and urbanization), and the emergence of conservation and reform movements, including park and land preservation, environmental regulation, and resource management. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually.

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