Environmental History of the U.S. West
Instructor: Andrew R. Graybill, June 14 - 18
COURSE
Our week-long class will examine the past interactions between human societies and the natural world in what is now the U.S. West. This relationship is complex, because the environment reveals the effects of people’s influences but also shapes human history by creating and limiting our possibilities. We will investigate this reciprocal relationship through the consideration of a handful of specific themes, including Native American resource management; the ecological impact of encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples; natural resource exploitation in the industrial age; modern environmental problems; and the contemporary environmental movement.
READINGS
We will use three books for this class:
- Merchant, Carolyn, ed., Major Problems in American Environmental History. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1993).
- White, Richard. Land Use, Environment, and Social Change: The Shaping of Island County, Washington. (1980; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992).
- Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
Monday, June 14
DISCUSSION:
Introduction to the Study of Environmental History
READING:
Merchant, Major Problems in American Environmental History, 1-14, 22-31.
Tuesday, June 15
DISCUSSION:
Ecological Invasions and First Encounters
READING:
Merchant, Major Problems in American Environmental History, 14-22, 32-63, 65-92.
Wednesday, June 16
DISCUSSION:
Industrialism and Resource Exploitation
READING:
Merchant, Major Problems in American Environmental History, 253-64.
White, Land Use, Environment, and Social Change, 3-13, 35-53, 77-160.
Thursday, June 17
DISCUSSION:
Environmental Catastrophe
READING:
Merchant, Major Problems in American Environmental History, 487-93.
Worster, Dust Bowl, 3-97, 231-43.
Friday, June 18
DISCUSSION:
The Environmental Movement
READING:
Merchant, Major Problems in American Environmental History, 523-67.