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Environmental
History 1790
Brown University
Department of History
Time: MWF 1-1:50pm
Fall, 2014
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History
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Professor: Lukas Rieppel
Office Hrs: M 2-3, Th 12-1
Sharpe House, 305
[email protected]
[African Elephants on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.]
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Environmental history examines the changing relationship
between human beings and their physical surroundings over time. In this course, we will
actively question the boundary between nature and culture, showing how our social and
natural history mutually inform one another. We will do so by asking three distinct but
interrelated questions. First, how has the material context in which history unfolded
impacted the development of our culture, society, and economy? Second, how and why did
our ideas and representations of the natural world change over time? Finally, in what ways
and to what ends have human beings actively though not always intentionally altered their
physical surroundings?
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Assessment:
Midterm Exam, Oct. 15th (20%)
Final Exam, Dec. 12th, 2pm (30%)
Term Paper, 5-7 pages, Dec. 10th (40%)
Participation (10%)
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Participation: Your participation is a vital part of this course. Please come to class having
completed the assigned reading, ready to engage in a lively and informed discussion.
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Disabilities: Please contact me by the end of the second week if you have a documented
disability so that we can make the necessary accommodations.
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Term Paper: A printout of your term paper is due by 5pm on Dec. 10th. You may write
about any topic that touches on the themes of this course. Be creative! I encourage you to
come to my office hours to discuss your choice of paper topics. I am more than happy to
provide written feedback on your term paper. If you would like feedback, please submit a
stamped, self-addressed 8.5 x 11 inch manila envelope so I can mail you my comments.
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Readings: Each week, I have chosen one or more texts as required readings. Everyone is
expected to have read these sources thoroughly and come to class prepared to engage in a
discussion based on familiarity with the arguments they present. In addition, I have also
indicated several “optional / additional” readings. These are not required, and I do not
expect you to read them or make reference to them in our discussions. Rather, I include
them primarily for students who find the themes discussed during a particular week of
special interest and relevance, and who would like to follow up with additional readings on
that theme. The optional / additional sources may also be of potential use if you would like
to more deeply engage some particular literature in your term paper.
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Writing Resources: You are encouraged to make use of Brown’s Writing Center, whose
main offices are located in room 213 of the J. Walter Wilson Building. You can schedule an
appointment to receive help and feedback on your writing here: http://www.brown.edu/
Student_Services/Writing_Center/appointments/.
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A Note On Plagiarism: Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses. Anyone suspected of
such infractions will be referred to the Dean’s Office.
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COURSE TIMETABLE
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Week 1: Introduction & Overview
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Sept. 3rd: Introduction
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No readings
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Sept. 5th: The Nature / Culture Divide
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Readings:
William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the
Human Place in Nature (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995): 69-90.
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Week 2: Colonial America
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Sept 8: Colonial Nature
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Readings:
William Cronon, “Bounding the Land,” in Changes in the Land (NY: Hill & Wang,
2003), pp. 54-81.
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Sept 10: Enlightenment Nature
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Readings:
Mark Fiege, “By the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” in This Republic of Nature
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012), pp. 57-100.
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Week 3: Establishing a New Nation
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Sept 15: The American Incognitum
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Readings:
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (London: Printed for John Stockdale,
1787), pp. 64-94.
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Suggested / Recommended:
Paul Semonin, “Exhumation of the Monster,” in American Monster: How the Nation’s
First Prehistoric Creature Became a Symbol for National Identity (NY: NYU Press, 2000), pp.
315-340.
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Sept 17: Landscape Painting & The Hudson River School
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Readings:
Roderick Nash, “The Romantic Wilderness,” in Wilderness & The American Mind (New
Haven: Yale UP, 2001), pp. 44-66.
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Week 4: Measuring the Romantic Wilderness
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Sep 22: The Transcendental Wilderness
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Readings:
Thoreau, Henry David. “Economy” and “Solitude” in Walden. Boston: Ticknor &
Fields, 1862, pp. 5-87, 140-150.
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Sept 24: Humboldtian Science
Readings:
Sachs, Aaron. “Humboldt and the Influence of Europe,” in The Humbolt Current.
NY: Viking, 2006. pp. 41-111.
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Week 5: The Classifying Imagination
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Sept 29th: Taking Stock
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Readings:
Louis Agassiz, “General Sketch” and “Classification & Creation,” in Methods of Study
in Natural History (Boston: Tricknor and Fields, 1864), pp. 1-15, 41-72.
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Optional / Suggested Reading:
Lowood, Henry. “The Calculating Forester: Quantification, Cameral Science, and the
Emergence of Scientific Forestry Management in Germany,” in The Quantifying Spirit
in the 18th Century, eds. Tore Fraengsmyr et al. Berkeley 1990, 315-342.
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Radkau, Joachim. “Wood and Forestry in German History,” in Environment and
History vol. 2, No. 1, Feb. 1996, 63-76.
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Oct 1st: Museums & Gardens
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Readings:
Lukas Rieppel, “Museums and Gardens,” in A Companion to the History of Science, by
Bernard Lightman (ed.). NJ: Wiley, forthcoming (2015).
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Optional / Suggested Readings:
Brooks McNamara, “A Congress of Wonders: The Rise and Fall of the Dime
Museum,” in The Emerson Society Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 3, 1974, p. 216-234.
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Week 6: Governing Nature
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Oct 6: Cotton
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Readings:
Beckert, Sven. “Emancipation and Empire: Reconstructing the Worldwide Web of
Cotton Production in the Age of the American Civil War,” in The American Historical
Review, Vol. 109, No. 5, 2004, pp. 1405-1438.
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Optional / Suggested Reading:
Fiege, Mark. “King Cotton,” in The Republic of Nature, Seattle: University of
Washington Press, pp. 100-156.
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Oct. 8: Colonial Governance
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Readings:
Drayton, Richard. “The Government of Nature,” in Nature's Government: Science,
Imperial Britain, and the "Improvement" of the World. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000, pp.
221-268.
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Optional / Suggested Reading:
Rajan, Ravi. “Imperial Environmentalism or Environmental Imperialism? European
Forestry, Colonial Foresters and the Agendas of Forest Management in British India
1800-1900,” in Nature and the Orient, eds. Richard Grove et al. Delhi 1998, 324-371.
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Week 7: Midterm Exam
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Oct 13: Columbus Day, no class
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Oct 15: Midterm Exam
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Week 8: Parks & Wilderness Preserves
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Oct 20: City Parks
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Readings:
Roy Rosenzweig & Elizabeth Blackmar, The Park and the People (Ithaca: Cornell UP,
1992), pp. 95-149, 211-259.
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Oct 22: National Parks
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Readings:
Theodore Roosevelt, “The Vigor of Life,” in Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders
and An Autobiography (NY: The Library of America, 2004): 280-308.
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Recommended / Suggested:
Roderick Nash, “Preserve the Wilderness!” and “Wilderness Preserved,” in Wilderness
& The American Mind, pp. 96-121.
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Week 9: Conservation & Preservation
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Oct 27: Nature Conservation & Eugenic Anxiety
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Readings:
Madison Grant, “The Passing of the Great Race,” Geographical Review, vol. 2, no. 5
(1916): 354-60.
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Madison Grant, “Wild Life Protection,” Zoological Society Bulletin, vol. 14, no. 1 (1916):
1320.
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Oct 29: The Hetch Hetchy Controversy
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Readings:
Various Authors, Conservation in the Progressive Era, selections.
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Recommended / Suggested:
Roderick Nash, “Hetch Hetchy,” in Wilderness & The American Mind, pp. 161-182.
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Week 10: The Science of Nature
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Nov 3: Evolution
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Readings:
Darwin, Charles. “Introduction” and “Recapitulation and Conclusion,” in The Origin
of Species, London: John Murray, 1859, pp. 1-6, 459-490.
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Nov 5: Ecology
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Readings:
Clements, Frederick. “Nature and Structure of the Climax.” Journal of Ecology 24
(1936), pp. 252-84.
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Tansley, Arthur G. “The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms.”
Ecology 6, 1935, pp. 284-307.
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Recommended / Suggested:
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Donald Worster, “Clemens and the Climax Community” and “Dust Follows the
Plow,” in Nature’s Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994), pp. 205-255.
***No Class on Friday Nov. 7th***
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Week 11: Ecological Values
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Nov 10: Aldo Leopold & The Land Ethic
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Readings:
Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” in A Sand County Almanac, (NY: Ballantine Books,
1966), pp. 237-264.
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Recommended / Suggested:
Roderick Nash, “Aldo Leopold: Prophet,” “Decisions for Permanence” and
“Towards a Philosophy of Wilderness,” in Wilderness & The American Mind, pp.
182-238.
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Nov 12: Lebensraum
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Readings:
Blackbourn, David. “Race and Reclamation” in The Conquest of Nature: Water,
Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2006.
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Week 12: Gendered & Othered Nature
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Nov 17: Gendered Nature
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Readings:
Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature. H&R 1980, ch. 1 (Nature as Female), pp.
1-41.
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Nov 19: Invasive Species
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Readings:
Pauly, Philip. “The Beauty and Menace of the Japanese Cherry Trees. Conflicting
Visions of American Ecological Independence.” Isis 87, pp. 51-73.
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Week 13: Thanksgiving Recess
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Nov 24: Field Trip, The Nature Lab
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Week 14: Environmental Activism During the 20th Century
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Dec 1: Rachel Carson & DDT
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Readings:
Rachel Carson, “A Fable for Tomorrow” and “And No Birds Sing,” in Silent Spring,
Anniversary Edition, (NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), pp. 1-5, 103-129.
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Dec 3: The Population Bomb
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Readings:
Paul Erlich, “The Problem,” in The Population Bomb (NY: Ballantine Books, 1968), pp.
1-45.
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