Environmental History of Europe in the Middle Ages

3 credits · Undergraduate

(3 hrs Lecture/Seminar) This lecture/seminar course examines the relationships between communities and the natural world in medieval Europe (ca. 400?ca. 1500). The course asks the question of nature's agency in medieval history by analyzing how nature shaped social structures, as well as cultural and religious identities, but also how medieval communities learned to control their environment and manage natural resources. Issues include the expansion of agriculture on European landscapes; manorial economy; agrarian and mining technologies; fishing and hunting; pollution and medieval urbanization; as well as natural disasters and diseases, such as the Great Famine and the Black Death.