Course Description
Examination of the environmental history of the world from approximately 1500 AD until the present, with a focus on the global processes-- such as colonial and imperial expansion, industrialization and the rise of modern technological systems, agricultural intensification, and population growth--which have driven the historical acceleration of human-induced environmental change. Examination of the environmental impacts of these processes, and local responses, in all regions of the world.
Athena Title
ENV HIST MOD WORLD
Prerequisite
2000-level HIST course
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students who complete the course will be able to think, write, and speak critically about the historical dimensions of current global environmental challenges. In particular, the course will require students to think in terms of sweeping historical trends, and to grasp the unique profile of the last five hundred years in world environmental history. The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
The following is a sample list of topics to be covered in the course: 1. European Expansion I - Island Encounters and the Origins of Environmental Concern 2. European Expansion II - Ecological Imperialism in the Americas 3. European Expansion III - Colonialism and Imperialism as Environmental Processes 4. European Expansionism IV - The Rise of Capitalist World Systems 5. The African Diaspora: An Epidemiological and Biological History 6. World Deforestation since 1500 7. Imperial Conservation I: South Asian Forest History 8. Imperial Conservation II: Rethinking Narratives of African Environmental Degradation 9. The U.S. and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World 10. National Parks: A World History 11. World Energy History 12. The Rise of Modern Environmentalisms 13. Mega-Dams and Modern Developmentalism 14. The Green Revolution and Agricultural Modernization 15. Urbanization as an Environmental Process 16. Air and Water Pollution in Historical Perspective 17. Globalization, Biodiversity, and Biological Invasions 18. Plagues and Peoples: Historical Connections between Environmental Change and Global Health
Syllabus