Capitalism, Land and Water: A World History: 1350-1848

The choice of how we allocate land and water shapes famine, drought, war, homelessness and poverty. Over the centuries, utopians and empires have looked to very different systems of allocation, from village communalism to plantation systems to state provision of infrastructure to free-market systems. This course mixes histories of political economy, theology, literature, and anthropology, asking how imaginary landscapes become the material realities of farm and highway. Themes will include the rise of modern, surveying, engineering, cities, infrastructure systems, and land reform. It will ask about the consequences of history in an era of environmental disaster, famine, mortgages, and evictions.