Environmental Science & Policy 207 - Introduction to Environmental History

This course offers an introduction to the methods and key debates in environmental history, the history of the relationship between humanity and the “rest of nature,” including climate, water, soils, landscapes, plants, animals, microbes, and others. “What is environmental history?” is in fact easier to answer than “What isn’t environmental history?” Since the 1970s, environmental historians have used an environmental lens to examine topics like politics, economy, religion, gender, race, migration, art, music, literature, and culture. In addition to typical archives of texts and other historical remnants created by people, environmental historians also avail themselves to “natural” archives, including the ice core, tree-ring, and lake sediment samples collected by climate scientists. Topics in this course will include historical conceptions of nature and the natural world, human settlement, human/animal relations, disaster, agrarian development, the adoption of carbon energy, social movements centered on the environment and environmentalism, and discussions of the Anthropocene. (E)