HIST 385 - People in Nature: An Introduction to Environmental History

Class Hours: 3
Lab/Discussion: 0
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing, 3cr of college history
Examines the ways in which human perceptions of nature, human manipulations of nature, and natural constraints on human activities have interacted and changed over time. Drawing material from early modern and modern Europe as well as the United States, this course treats the effects of climate change, industrialization, agricultural crisis, deforestation, and modern conservation and environmentalism through rotating case studies. Examines the following comprehensive questions with each case study: How have climate, soil, biota, and other natural factors shaped human ways of making a living from the land? How have they influenced culture more generally? How has human action, in various times and places, modified natural ecosystems? How do we describe the resulting “hybrid” landscapes? How have different cultures described and analyzed nature?