Technology and Nature in American History
Spring 2008
This course considers how the visual and material world of "nature" has been reshaped by industrial practices, ideologies, and institutions, particularly in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Topics include land-use patterns; the changing shape of cities and farms; the redesign of water systems; the construction of roads, dams, bridges, irrigation systems; the creation of national parks; ideas about wilderness; and the role of nature in an industrial world. From small farms to suburbia, Walden Pond to Yosemite, we will ask how technological and natural forces have interacted, and whether there is a place for nature in a technological world. ##### Acknowledgement This class is based on one originally designed and taught by Prof. Deborah Fitzgerald. Her Fall 2004 version can be viewed by following the link under Archived Courses on the right side of this page.
Readings
- Basso, Keith. Wisdom Sits in Places . Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780826317247.
- Cronon, William. Changes in the Land . New York, NY: Hill & Wang, 2003. ISBN: 9780809016341.
- Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and Technological Wild West . New York, NY: Penguin, 2004. ISBN: 9780142004104.
- White, Richard. The Organic Machine . New York, NY: Hill & Wang, 1996. ISBN: 9780809015832.
- Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004 [1979]. ISBN: 9780195174885.
- Williams, Raymond. “Ideas of Nature.” In Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays . London, UK: Verso, 1996, pp. 67-85. ISBN: 9780860917298.
- Marx, Leo. “Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept.” Social Research 64, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 965-988.
- Marx, L. The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 242-265. ISBN: 9780195133516.
- Stilgoe, John. Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985, pp. 189-221. ISBN: 9780300034813.
- Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West . New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992, pp. 55-93. ISBN: 9780393308730.
- Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West . New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992, pp. 97-147. ISBN: 9780393308730.
- Steinberg, Theodore. Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 71-115. ISBN: 9780195140101.
- LEC #: 14 · TOPICS: Networking nation and nature: a case study of weather telegraphy, 1870-1891 · READINGS: Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and Technological Wild West . New York, NY: Penguin, 2004. ISBN: 9780142004104.
- Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness.” In Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature . Edited by William Cronon. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1995, pp. 69-90. ISBN: 9780393038729.
- Steinberg, Theodore. Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 138-56. ISBN: 9780195140101.
- LEC #: 22 · TOPICS: Discussion · READINGS: Selected primary sources from Nicolaides, Becky M., and Andrew Wiese, eds. The Suburb Reader . New York, NY: Routledge, 2006, pp. 260-272, 298, 303, and 316-320. ISBN: 9780415945936.
- Pollan, Michael. “Naturally: How Organic became a Marketing Niche and a Multibillion-dollar Industry.” The New York Times Magazine , May 13, 2001, pp. 30-37, 57-58, and 63-64.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.