This course surveys the growth of environmental sciences and their place in changing conceptions of the human condition with respect to "nature." Over the past two hundred years, the natural world has been viewed variously as a dominion to be controlled, conquered, or subdued; an object to be studied by a knowing subject; a fragile and limited resource bequeathed by one human generation to the next. These and other variations are never wholly "scientific" or exclusively beyond the realm of science. The environmental sciences have played significant roles, however, in framing views of nature. The primary purpose of this course will be to examine, historically, the construction of those frames, and responses to views seen through them. No advanced knowledge of modern sciences will be assumed.

The scope of the course will be broad with respect to time, covering roughly the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Although our dominant focus will be upon American science, politics, and society, we will occasionally divert our historical self-interest toward comparative study of policy in other cultures, or to examine the work of European scientists whose influence was inescapable (e.g.: Charles Darwin).

Although nearly all of Western science can be said to have an "environmental" component, we will focus primarily on the natural history sciences. Our study of the latter will provide our primary understanding of the notion of "environment," as well as the source of the associated conception of "ecology."

Requirements and policies:

Please feel free to communicate with me via e-mail at any time; in most instances, I will reply within 24 hours. It is also possible to reach me by phone (my direct office line is 534-8920; call the department at 534-1996 to leave a message).

Grades will be based on a final exam (35%), a research paper (40%), and the cumulative score from five biweekly quizzes (25%). It is history department policy that you must complete all major assignments in order to receive a passing grade. This means that you must turn in a paper on time, and you must take the final exam. Each weekly quiz will have twelve multiple-choice questions, each worth one point. You cannot take a make-up quiz. If you must miss a quiz, you can satisfy the course requirements by writing a 4-5 page book report in lieu of a quiz.

Attendance at lectures is not mandatory, but it is probably not possible to pass the course without regular attendance. If you miss a lecture, please attempt to get notes from someone in the class and study them; I will be happy to go over the material with you, during office hours, once you have made that effort.

Required Texts

(For sale at Groundworks Bookstore)

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Aldo Leopold, 1970 [1949], A Sand County Almanac

Henry David Thoreau [1854], Walden, Or Life in the Woods

Donald Worster, Nature's Economy (San Francisco: Sierra Club)

Recommended: Peter J. Bowler, 1992, The Norton History of the Environmental Sciences (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company).

Week Two: What, if anything, is environment?

Required reading: Worster, pp. 1-55

Recommended: Bowler, pp. 1-31, 139-192

Week Three Walden Pond

Required reading: Thoreau, Walden; Worster, pp. 57-111.

Recommended: Bowler, pp. 193-305

Week Four Darwinian nature

Required reading: Worster, pp. 113-187

Recommended: Bowler, pp. 306-378

Week Five Ecology in the 20th Century

Required reading: Worster, 189-253

Recommended: Bowler, pp. 503-535

Week Six Conservation and the Land Ethic

Required reading: Leopold, Sand County Almanac; Worster, pp. 255-338

Week Seven: Silent Spring

Required reading: Carson, Silent Spring

Week Eight: Postwar ecology; Island biogeography

Required reading: Worster, pp. 339-434

Recommended: Bowler, pp. 535-553

Week Nine: Population and environmentalism

Required reading: TBA

Week Ten: Ecological Restoration

Required reading: TBA

Week Eleven: Gaia and systems thinking