HIST 240 American Environmental History
This broad overview covers our country's environmental history from pre-conquest to current, sampling history from each region, and from a diversity of views. Throughout the course, we strive to understand our individual and our nation's relationship to the environment/nature. We not only examine changing historical interpretations and relationships, but race, ethnicity, class, and gender as well, as they influenced and were influenced by environmental forces. While our focus is the historical record and its analysis, we do not ignore nature writing and art/photography, past and present. Because environmental history is as current as today's newspaper headlines, we consider current environmental issues. Throughout our readings, we will analyze the historical connection between the degradation of people, e.g., communities of color, and degradation of the environment, that is the link between racism/poverty and pollution.