AS 2300 - Problems in US Environmental History

Credits: 4

This course examines the history of Americans’ interactions with the physical environment of the current United States from the European colonial period to the present. Through assigned readings, class discussions, short films, short writing assignments, and speakers, we will consider 500 years of human occupation of North America and its environmental consequences. We will examine how natural environments have established parameters for human economic and social activity, as well as how human beings have interpreted and then reshaped their environmental surroundings in an effort to satisfy their perceived needs. In addition, we will study how different groups of Americans have interacted in their quest to manage, control and distribute the resources of the land, and the impact of “race” and gender on perceptions of our place in and relationship to the non-human environment.

Prerequisites
EC I

When Offered:
Occasionally.