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Food, Science, and War in the Atlantic 1600-1919

Course Description

How did a food delivery system emerge across the Atlantic after 1492? Part I explores cocoa, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, biological science, nautical engineering, and the slave trade. Part II explores the potato famine, abolition, the wheat trade, the growth of European states, World War I, and the Russian Revolution.

Athena Title

Food Science and War

Pre or Corequisite

One course in HIST or RUSS or GRMN or INTL or POLS or PHIL or AESC or AGED or ANTH or ECON or BIOL or AFAM or AFST or ECOL

Grading System

A - F (Traditional)

Student Learning Outcomes

  • At the end of the course, students should be able to explain how civil logistics help us understand Atlantic history.
  • At the end of the course, students will understand the role of addiction in the development of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
  • At the end of the course, students should be able to debate the relationship between Capitalism and Slavery.
  • At the end of the course, students should be able to discuss and understand origins of the American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I.
  • At the end of the course, students will understand how food insecurity can contribute to revolution.

Topical Outline

  • Chocolate: Marcy Norton, “Tasting Empire”
  • Tropical drugs and biology: Benjamin Breen, chapter from The Age of Intoxication
  • Slavery and shipbuilding: chapter from Rediker, The Slave Ship
  • Sugar and industry: John E. Crowley, “Sugar Machines: Picturing Industrialized Slavery”
  • Tobacco and slavery: TH Breen, chapter from Tobacco and Slaves
  • Coffee: chapter from Stuart McCook, Coffee is Not Forever
  • Flour: chapter 3 from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
  • Free Trade and water molds: chapter 4 from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
  • U.S. Civil War: chapter six from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
  • Food and Logistics in European Wars: chapter 7 from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
  • European State expansion post-1865: chapter 10 from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
  • A World War over Bread: chapter 13 from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
  • Revolutions over Bread: chapter 14 from Nelson, Oceans of Grain
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