Course description
How did people in what is now the United States shape their environment, and how were they shaped by it? And how does US history fit into larger global environmental history? This course examines how humans thought about and used the natural world over the centuries—and the consequences of both use of and thoughts about the nature. Topics include food, climate change, pollution, conquest and resistance, environmentalism and environmental justice, and energy. This course actively seeks to show the importance of the material world and the contributions of a broad spectrum of historical actors to US history, among them Indigenous Americans, enslaved people, women, working people, and outlaws, as well as the climate, microbes, and animals. While the focus is on what is now the US, the course frequently looks outward to the rest of the world.
