American Wilderness

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What does it mean to be American? Wilderness, as an idea, a set of places, and a political process, is a big part of the answer. Writers, historians, painters, photographers, and politicians have described American landscapes as wild from colonization into the 21st century to great effect. Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold famously anchor the history of popular environmental thought. But wilderness is not simple. Because places are constantly constructed and reconstructed through culture as well as politics, wilderness has taken shape in concert with relationships of gender, class, race, and nation. National parks protected distinctively American landscapes starting in 1872 by removing the Native American peoples who inhabited them, and the 1964 Wilderness Act built from that legacy. Today Congress has designated about 5% of the United States (over half in Alaska) as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and arguments over the protection of public land continue to divide local and national communities. This class will explore how the idea of wilderness, the places associated with it, and the politics surrounding both have developed from the 19th century to today. It will examine how wilderness has underscored our national identity but largely failed to recognize the diversity of American society and culture. Along the way we will discuss literature, history, visual culture, politics, and popular media, and explore historical relationships between wilderness and art, outdoor recreation, public land management, and consumer culture.