The historical interactions between Americans and the natural environment from before European exploration and settlement until the present. The course particularly focuses on how nature has shaped human history, how humans have transformed the natural world, and how ideas about nature have changed over time.
Athena Title
American Environmental History
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HIST 3160H
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about environmental history by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how American environmental history has shaped social and economic relations between diverse peoples and their environment, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
Topical Outline
Native American land use
Anthropogenic fire
The "ecological Indian" myth
Puritans
Wilderness
John Locke
Capitalism
Co-modification
Industrial capitalism
The Civil War
Progressive conservation and preservation
Gifford Pinchot
John Muir
Urban environment
1918 flu epidemic
Industrial agriculture
Fossil fuels
Postwar affluence
Suburbanization and the automobile
The great "dam battles" of the 1950s
The "environmental management state"
Radical environmentalism
Ronald Reagan
James Watt
Anti-environmental backlash
Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
