Environmental History

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Taught as HIST1901 -'Environmental History' at a host institution. What factors have shaped human dealings with the natural world? How have people changed the environment? And how have different societies responded to environmental change over time? These are the questions at the heart of this unit, which offers an introduction to environmental history. A survey of the field follows key historical debates on topics including Indigenous environmental impacts, human-animal relationships, El Niño and nineteenth-century Indian famines, the causes of the American dust bowl, the politics of fisheries, the cultural significance of wilderness and implications of preservationism, the 'green' policies of Nazi Germany and relationships between nature and nationalism. Students gain an understanding of the myriad factors shaping relationships between people and environments in the past; an understanding that is essential for interpreting the environmental problems we face today.