HIST364: Environmental History « The Saylor Foundation

94% Environmental History

Purpose of Course

This course will focus on the history of mankind’s relationship with the natural world. We will examine how environmental factors have shaped the development and growth of civilizations around the world and analyze how these civilizations have altered their environments in positive and negative ways. The course will be structured chronologically. Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching themes, such as how early humans adapted natural resources for new purposes, how the expansion of civilizations led to environmental changes, how the interaction between European explorers and Native Americans led to significant and unexpected environmental consequences, and how modern societies have responded to environmental problems that threaten the well-being of humans and the natural world. By the end of the course, you will better understand the reciprocal relationship between human beings and the natural environment and how this relationship has evolved throughout human history.

Notes:

Most audio resources have alternative written transcripts (except for YouTube resources that are not close-captioned for the hearing impaired).
Typescript pagination is different from published work. A typescript will be 1/3 to 1/2 longer than the same document will be when published. Please take this into account when noting page lengths of assignments.

Learning Outcomes show close

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Think critically about the historical relationship between humans and the natural environment.
Identify how early humans modified and adapted natural resources for agricultural and commercial purposes.
Analyze how human settlements altered the natural environment and evaluate how environmental factors shaped the growth of early civilizations.
Evaluate how new agricultural and commercial practices altered the natural environment across the globe during the Middle Ages.
Identify how environmental factors, such as disease and pollution, shaped political and social life in Europe during the Early-Modern Era.
Evaluate how the Columbian Exchange resulted in significant ecological and biological changes in Europe and the Americas and dramatically altered human societies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Analyze the impact of industrialization on human society during the Modern Era and evaluate how governmental and nongovernmental actors have attempted to ameliorate the negative environmental consequences of industrialization.
Identify current environmental challenges facing humanity and analyze these challenges from a historical perspective.
Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents relating to environmental history using historical research methods.

Course Requirements show close

In order to take this course, you must:

√ Have a computer.

√ Have access to continuous broadband Internet access.

√ Have the ability/permission to install plug-ins or software (e.g. Adobe Reader or Flash).

√ Have the ability to download and save files and documents to a computer.

√ Have the ability to open Microsoft files and documents (.doc, .ppt, .xls, etc.).

√ Be competent in the English language.

√ Have downloaded and installed the iTunes application.

√ Have completed all courses in the Core Program of the History Discipline (HIST101, HIST102, HIST103, and HIST104).

Course Overview Expand Resources Collapse Resources

Unit Outline show close

1 Human Beings and Their Environment
1.1 The Natural Environment and Human History
1.1.1 What Is Environmental History?
1.1.2 How Does the Environment Shape Human History?
1.1.3 How Do Humans Shape Environmental History?
1.1.4 Ways of Studying the Interaction between Humans and the Natural Environment
1.1.5 Changing Perspectives on the Environment and Human History
1.2 Fire
1.2.1 Preindustrial Uses of Fire
1.2.2 The First Firestarters
1.2.3 The Bronze Age
1.3 Water
1.3.1 Transportation
1.3.2 Agriculture
1.3.3 Importance of Water in Human Culture
1.4 Land
1.4.1 Development of Agriculture
1.4.2 Horticulture and Domestication of Wild Animals
1.4.3 Impact of Human Activities on Natural Environments
1.4.4 Impact of Natural Environments on Human Activities
1.5 Natural Disasters
1.5.1 Recovery
1.5.2 Drought
1.5.3 Volcanoes and Floods
1.5.4 Long-term Environmental Reasons for Civilization Collapse

2 Civilization and Environmental Change
2.1 Communities and Environmental Change
2.1.1 Deforestation
2.1.2 Fire
2.1.3 Overuse of Natural Resources
2.1.4 Environmental Degradation and Societal Collapse
2.2 Urbanization and Environmental Change
2.2.1 Sewers
2.2.2 Air Pollution
2.2.3 Reshaping the Natural Environment
2.2.4 Environmental Causes of Urban Decline
2.3 Religion
2.3.1 Understanding the Natural World
2.3.2 Responding to the Environment
2.3.3 Moderating Human Interactions With the Natural World
2.4 Trade and Commerce
2.4.1 Shaped By Environmental Conditions
2.4.2 The Commodification of Natural Resources

5 Industrialization
5.1 The Industrial Revolution in the U.K.
5.1.1 New, Artificial Means of Energy Production
5.1.2 Greater Dependence on Commercial Agriculture
5.1.3 Health Impact
5.1.4 Environmental Impact
5.2 Population and the Industrial Revolution
5.2.1 Malthusian Population Pressures
5.2.2 European Migration
5.3 Industrial Revolution in the United States
5.3.1 Machine Versus the Garden
5.3.2 Technology and the American Landscape
5.3.3 Human Impact of New Technologies
5.3.4 Ideology and the 1930s U.S.
5.3.5 Balancing Technological and Environmental Change
5.3.6 Progressive-Era Environmental Reform
5.4 Modern Urbanization
5.4.1 Rapid Growth of Industrial Cities
5.4.5 Environment and Social Impact
5.4.6 Response to Ecological and Environmental Problems
5.4.7 Regulation and Planning Versus Lassez Faire Development
5.5 Science and the Environment
5.5.1 Harnessing the Power of Nature
5.5.2 Modifying the Environment
5.5.3 Studying the Environment
5.5.4 Changing Scientific Attitudes towards the Natural World

6 Reshaping the Modern Environment
6.1 Theories of Industrialization
6.1.1 Technology as Religion
6.1.2 Industrialization and Economic Ethics
6.2 Redefining Landscapes
6.2.1 Transportation
6.2.2 Industry
6.2.3 Population Growth
6.2.4 Government Regulation
6.2.5 Conflict and Environmental Impact
6.2.6 “Big Technology” and Environmental Change: Dams, Canals, and Rivers
6.2.7 Energy Production and Air and Water Pollution
6.2.8 Globalizing Technologies
6.3 Modern Agriculture
6.3.1 Food and Food Policy
6.3.2 Green Revolutions
6.3.3 Genetically Modified Foods
6.3.4 Intensive Versus Extensive Land Use
6.3.5 Agriculture in the Developing World
6.4 Modern Commerce
6.4.1 World Commodities
6.4.2 Trade Networks
6.4.3 Commerce in the Developing World
6.5 International Politics and the Environment
6.5.1 Russia and the Soviet Union
6.5.2 Developing World: Bangladesh

7 Threatened Environments-Threatened Societies
7.1 Endangered Ecosystems
7.1.1 Water Diversion
7.1.2 Over Fishing and Ocean Health
7.1.3 Timber Harvesting and Forest Health
7.1.4 Industrial Chemicals and the Environment
7.1.5 Invasive Species
7.1.6 Mining and Mineral Production
7.2 Population and the Environment
7.2.1 The “Population Bomb”
7.2.2 Human Settlement Patterns
7.2.3 Population, Overpopulation, and Resource Scarcity
7.3 Ecological Change and Human Society
7.3.1 Evolutionary Medicine
7.3.2 Pollution and Disease
7.3.3 Climate Change
7.3.4 Unintended Consequences of Technologies

8 Environmentalism: New Perspectives on Mankind's Relationship With the Natural World
8.1 Conservation and Preservation
8.1.1 Origins of Conservation and Preservation Movements
8.1.2 Goals
8.1.3 Social and Environmental Consequences: Conservation of Habitat and Fire Hazard
8.2 Modern Environmental Movement
8.2.1 Origins in the U.S.
8.2.2 Science, Advocacy, and Public Policy
8.2.3 Impact on Global Society
8.3 Regulation and Resistance
8.3.1 National and International Regulatory Efforts
8.3.2 Successes and Failures
8.3.3 The Politics of Environmental Change
8.3.4 Religion
8.4 Current Trends
8.4.1 Rethinking the Relationship Between Humans and the Environment
8.4.2 Commerce and the Environment: Cap and Trade
8.4.3 Science and the Search for Solutions
8.4.4 Thinking Globally/Acting Locally

Unit 1: Human Beings and Their Environment

One of the defining characteristics of humanity is the ability to make and use tools: technology. Humans use technology to shape their environments. From the earliest uses to provide shelter, safety, and food to organized and cooperative efforts that are hallmarks of human civil society—horticulture, husbandry, domestication, and agriculture—humans shape the physical world they live in. And, differing and changing environments have always shaped human society in complex and subtle ways. Environmental historian Timothy Silver claims that environmental history is history “with the animals left in,” but it is a great deal more than that. Environmental history is the story of humans as biological creatures who interact with ecosystems on the planet. Technology has made it possible to shape the environment, but humans are still susceptible to ecological changes, ironically, that even their technologies create.

In this unit, you will examine how human culture interacts with the environment and has from pre-history (pre-writing) while pursuing a definition of environmental history. You will also explore Malthusian population theory that may yet be in play in human populations even though humans have insulated themselves from other environmental pressures. Finally, youwill discover some early civilizations, how they manipulated the natural world to their advantage, and the disasters that might have contributed to their decline.

Unit 1 Time Advisory show close

Unit 1 Learning Outcomes show close

1.1 The Natural Environment and Human History

Reading: Radford University: Professor Bill Kovarik’s “Environmental History Timeline”
Link: Radford University: Professor Bill Kovarik’s “Environmental History Timeline” (HTML)

Instructions: Please scroll over each section on the timeline to gather an introduction to overall environmental history. For each era discussed in this course, please revisit the timeline and click on the appropriate dates. This resource is applicable to all units and subunits.

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1.1.1 What Is Environmental History?

Web Media: iTunes U: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “What Is Environmental History?”
Link: iTunes U: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “What Is Environmental History?” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 41. Click “View in iTunes” to download the free audio podcast. Please listen to the podcast in its entirety (18:28 minutes). In this short lecture, historian K.J.W. Oosthoek discusses the origins and focuses of the environmental history discipline. He describes environmental history as the study of “human interaction with the natural world.” Oosthoek characterizes environmental history as inherently interdisciplinary and looks at how contemporary historians, scientists, and scholars have approached the subject. This resource also applies to subunit 1.1.5 below.

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Reading: John R. McNeill’s “Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History”
Instructions: In this article, John R. McNeill, the world’s leading environmental historian, traces the origin, evolution, expectations, and varieties of environmental history and situates it in relation to disciplines, such as the physical and social sciences. It is a classic text on the discipline of environmental history and will help the student see the big picture of this relatively young area of academic study.
The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
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1.1.2 How Does the Environment Shape Human History?

1.1.2.1 The Human-Environment Relationship

Reading: Encyclopedia of the Earth: “Evolution of the Human-Environment Relationship”
Link: Encyclopedia of the Earth: “Evolution of the Human-Environment Relationship” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire entry.

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1.1.2.2 Malthusian Population Theory

Reading: Rogers State University: Frank W. Ellwell’s T. Robert Malthus's Social Theory
Link: Rogers State University: Frank W. Ellwell’s T. Robert Malthus's Social Theory (HTML)

Instructions: Click on the hyperlink “Reclaiming Malthus,” and read the entire article. Then, click on the “Malthus’s Social Theory” hyperlink to view the Powerpoint presentation. Malthusian Population Theory was one step in the formation of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. As with evolution, Malthus became very controversial when applied to human population. The author mentions that he wishes to rehabilitate Malthus’s reputation; this is in response to the ways in which social Darwinism (a non-scientific social experiment) was carried out with brutal efficiency in World War II. Recently, social and physical scientists have revisited Malthus’s theory as valid, notwithstanding the butchery that was done in his name.

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Web Media: Khan Academy’s “Thomas Malthus and Population Growth”
Link: Khan Academy’s “Thomas Malthus and Population Growth” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please watch the above video (approx. 8 minutes) which further expands on Malthus’s theory. This web media and note-taking should take 15 minutes to complete.

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1.1.3 How Do Humans Shape Environmental History?

Reading: William Cronon’s “An Environmentalist on a Different Path: A Fresh View of the Supposed ‘Wilderness’ and even the Indians’ Place in It”
Link: William Cronon’s “An Environmentalist on a Different Path: A Fresh View of the Supposed ‘Wilderness’ and even the Indians’ Place in It” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll to the title and click on “PDF” to open a PDF document. This article originally appeared in The New York Times on April 3, 1999. Cronon argues that indigenous peoples, like the Native Americans who occupied the land prior to European colonization, interact with their environment in the same ways that all humans do. As Cronon explained in his landmark Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England,suggesting that Native Americans were or are somehow more “natural” than more technically advanced societies tends to deny, as a group, their unique humanity. This resource also applies to subunit 1.2.1.

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1.1.4 Ways of Studying the Interaction between Humans and the Natural Environment

Lecture: Vimeo: Michael Soulé’s “Can Creation Be Saved? Knowledge Finds Fulfillment in Compassion”
Link: Vimeo: Michael Soulé’s “Can Creation Be Saved? Knowledge Finds Fulfillment in Compassion” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please watch the linked lecture. The lecture begins at time mark 8:09 (approx. 1 hour).

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1.1.5 Changing Perspectives on the Environment and Human History

Reading: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Environmental History: Between Science and Philosophy”
Link: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Environmental History: Between Science and Philosophy” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read theentirearticle. Building on the previous reading, Oosthoek explores the idea of the environment in human thought.

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1.2 Fire

1.2.1 Preindustrial Uses of Fire

Reading: Wildandfire.com: Dr. Gerald W. Williams’ “References of the American Indian Use of Fire in Ecosystems” and Primitive Ways: Norm Kidder’s “Some Uses of Fire”
Links: Wildandfire.com: Dr. Gerald W. Williams’ “References on the American IndianUse of Fire in Ecosystems” (HTML) and Primitive Ways: Norm Kidder’s “Some Uses of Fire” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read Williams and Kidder to accompany the reading from 1.1.3 abovein learning about preindustrial uses of fire. Fire is technology. One distinguishing character of humans is the ability to make and use tools in order shape their environment. Note how Native Americans used fire to shape their ecosystems.

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1.2.2 The First Firestarters

Reading: Dichotomistic: John McCrone’s “The Discovery of Fire”
Link: Dichotomistic: John McCrone’s “The Discovery of Fire” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entirearticle. In this essay, the author examines the contested origin of fire in the hands of Homo erectus and its implications for the mental “big bang” around 40,000 years ago, characterized by the development of grammatical speech.

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1.2.3 The Bronze Age

Reading: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “The Bronze Age”
Link: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “The Bronze Age” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay that explains the history, metallurgy, and geology behind the shift from Copper Age smelting to the more complex, “major innovative period in human history,” the Bronze Age. Obtaining the minerals required in the smelting of bronze initiated a Euro-Asian trade economy, which also allowed shipping of completed objects. This reading is also applicable to subunit 2.5.2 below.

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1.3 Water

1.3.1 Transportation

1.3.1.1 Polynesian Exploration and Colonization

Reading: PBS: Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey
Link: PBS: Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey (HTML)

Instructions: Read each entry (8 webpages total), beginning with the “Introduction.” Click on the hyperlinks for “Polynesians: An Oceanic People,” “European Explorers,” “Linguistic Evidence/Oral Traditions,” “Heyerdahl and Sharp,” “The Archaeological Response,” “Experimental Voyaging,” and “Hokulea: The Rediscovery.” Prehistoric Polynesians were able to build water craft that allowed them to travel thousands of miles across the open Pacific Ocean and to colonize much of the island land mass in the Pacific Rim.

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1.3.1.2 North American Water Transportation

Web Media: Museum of Underwater Archaeology: Francois Rothan’s “Building a Birchbark Canoe”
Link: Museum of Underwater Archaeology:François Rothan’s “Building a Birchbark Canoe” (Adobe Flash)

Also Available in:
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Instructions: Please watch the entire video linked on this blog (about 8 minutes). Although François Rothan is building a canoe in the above video with modern tools, he demonstrates how easily such heavy, stable, and necessary craftswere constructed. Native Americans traveled extensively over what is now the Northeast U.S. and Canada in the rugged craft.

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1.3.2 Agriculture

Reading: Nature News: Amanda Mascarelli’s “Mayans Converted Wetlands to Farmland”
Link: Nature News: Amanda Mascarelli’s “Mayans Converted Wetlands to Farmland” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read linked article. Pre-Columbian Mayan farmers carved canals through the enormous swamps in the area that now are carved into Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala to drain areas and have access to crops planted in the dense vegetation.

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1.3.3 Importance of Water in Human Culture

Reading: Wiser Earth: Steve Solomon’s Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization: “Epilogue”
Link: Wiser Earth: Steve Solomon’s Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization: “Epilogue” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read Solomon’s epilogue in its entirety. Journalist Steve Solomon examines what freshwater availability has meant to the idea of civilization from ancient times to the present.

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1.4 Land

1.4.1 Development of Agriculture

Reading: Development of Agriculture

The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
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Reading: Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Edition:“Origins of Agriculture”
Link: Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Edition:“Origins of Agriculture” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked entryfor an overview of the origins of agriculture. This reading should take 1 hour to complete.

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1.4.2 Horticulture and Domestication of Wild Animals

Reading: Ohio State University: “From Hunter/Gatherer to Horticulturist to Agriculturist” and “Domestication”
Links: Ohio State University: “From Hunter/Gatherer to Horticulturist to Agriculturist” (HTML) and “Domestication” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read both articles in their entirety. Please follow the links in the text to read about horticulture and domestication.

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1.4.3 Impact of Human Activities on Natural Environments

Web Media: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Land Use and Management during the Mesolithic Period”
Link: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Land Use and Management during the Mesolithic Period” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please watch the linked video (3:41 minutes). Noted environmental historian Oosthoek gives a brief introduction to how settled Mesolithic Period communities in Europe managed land use.

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Reading: National Humanities Center: Shepard Krech, III’s “Paleoindians and the Great Pleistocene Die-Off”
Link: National Humanities Center:Shepard Krech, III’s “Paleoindians and the Great Pleistocene Die-Off” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. Shepard Krech, noted environmental historian, comments on the theory that Native American nomadic communities hunted large mammals to extinction. New scientific discoveries regarding the history of human habitation in North America have altered some of the facts relied upon by Krech, but the theory is still discussed. Please see subunit 1.4.4 for an important March 2011 discovery.

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1.4.4 Impact of Natural Environments on Human Activities

Reading: Washington Post: David Brown’s “Dig Solidifies Evidence that First Americans Were Here 15,000 Years Ago” and About.com: K. Kris Hirst’s “Pre-Clovis in Texas: the Debra L. Friedkin Site”
Links: Washington Post: David Brown’s “Dig Solidifies Evidence that First Americans Were Here 15,000 Years Ago” (HTML) and About.com: K. Kris Hirst’s “Pre-Clovis in Texas: the Debra L. Friedkin Site” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked articles,and click on the embedded hyperlinks and images to explore the media. The evidence recently discovered by archaeologists in Texas (and older evidence discovered in Chile) suggests that the original human inhabitants of North America may have navigated along the coast of what is North and South America even before the people named “Clovis” crossed the Bering Land Bridge. The pre-Clovis people traveled south, below the ice sheet that covered most of North America. Inhospitable climate determined the path of their migration and settlement.

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1.5 Natural Disasters

1.5.1 Recovery

Web Media: iTunes U: Duke University: Kevin Rosario’s “Catastrophes of Progress: Disaster and Innovation in America”
Link: iTunes U: Duke University: Kevin Rosario’s “Catastrophes of Progress: Disaster and Innovation in America” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 1. Click “View in iTunes” to download the free video lecture. Please view the lecture in its entirety (56:28 minutes).

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1.5.2 Drought

Reading: Climate History: “Drought and the Collapse of the Mayan Civilization”
Link: Climate History: “Drought and the Collapse of the Mayan Civilization” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. The Mayan civilization presents a puzzle to historians. Mayan cities were already abandoned when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in what is now Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala in the 15th and 16th centuries. Drought is one hypothesis for the collapse of the Mayan civilization.

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1.5.3 Volcanoes and Floods

Reading: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Volcanic Eruptions and European History”
Link: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Volcanic Eruptions and European History” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. Several volcanic eruptions (and attendant earthquakes) have been recorded in the writing of European history. The most notable is the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that entombed and preserved the Roman seaside resorts of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

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Reading: PBS: Jacqueline S. Mitchell’s “The Truth Behind Noah’s Flood”
Link: PBS: Jacqueline S. Mitchell’s “The Truth Behind Noah’s Flood” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked article (4 pages total). Natural disasters in antiquity were often seen as the act of the gods or a god. Notable among disasters that caused widespread destruction and were recorded in human history was a great flood that was mentioned in Babylonian texts and the Book of Genesis.

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1.5.4 Long-term Environmental Reasons for Civilization Collapse

Reading: Archeoscience International: Chris J. D. Kostman’s “The Demise of Utopia: Contexts of Civilizational Collapse in the Bronze Age Indus Valley”
Link: Archeoscience International: Chris J. D. Kostman’s “The Demise of Utopia: Contexts of Civilizational Collapse in the Bronze Age Indus Valley” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage.

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Reading: CBS: Clark L. Erickson’s “Neo-environmental Determinism and Agrarian ‘Collapse’ in Andean Prehistory”
Link: CBS:Clark L. Erickson’s “Neo-environmental Determinism and Agrarian ‘Collapse’ in Andean Prehistory” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked article (4 pages).

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Unit 2: Civilization and Environmental Change

About 10,000 years ago, former hunting and gathering human populations developed large-scale agriculture from horticulture and husbandry in an area that archaeologists call “the fertile crescent” or Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is now south eastern Turkey and Iraq. Agriculture created food abundance, which allowed leisure time, the predicate of a stratified culture. Becausenot every member of an agricultural society needs to be engaged in the active production of food, classes of scholars, priests, and law emerged, which require the invention of writing. Agriculture begat cities like ancient Babylon, as well as the somewhat later Nile and East Asian societies. Although each human society is unique, some of these first civilizationshave similarities, especiallyin regards tothe commodification of resources and resulting trade, resource depletion, and religion. In this unit, the student will examine the ways in which early (and later) ancient civilizations, driven by agriculture, shaped and were shaped by their environments.

Unit 2 Time Advisory show close

Unit 2 Learning Outcomes show close

Reading: Radford University: Professor Bill Kovarik’s “Ancient History Environmental Timeline”
Link: Radford University: Professor Bill Kovarik’s “Ancient History Environmental Timeline” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the timeline. This resource is to be used for subunits 2.1 – 2.4.

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2.1 Communities and Environmental Change

2.1.1 Deforestation

Reading: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “The Role of Wood in World History”
Link: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “The Role of Wood in World History” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. In this essay, historian K.J.W. Oosthoek analyzes how various civilizations throughout human history have used wood. Oosthoek also discusses how deforestation and subsequent climate change adversely affected various civilizations in the Middle East, Asia, and parts of Western Europe. He concludes that modern society should consider these historical precedents as it harvests wood from the Amazon basin and various parts of Southeast Asia.

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2.1.2 Fire

Reading: National Humanities Center: Steven J. Pyne’s “ History with Fire in its Eye: an Introduction to Fire in America”
Link: National Humanities Center: Steven J. Pyne’s “History with Fire in Its Eye: An Introduction to Fire in America” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article (3 webpages total). Click on the “continued” hyperlink at the bottom of each webpage to access subsequent pages for this reading.

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2.1.3 Overuse of Natural Resources

2.1.3.1 Water

Reading: University of Kansas: Donald Worster’s “Attitudes toward Water”
Link: University of Kansas: Donald Worster’s “Attitudes toward Water” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay. Noted environmental historian Donald Worster discusses “instrumentalism” and “the intrinsic tradition” in human thinking about the environment. According to him, instrumental thinking uses the idea of “conquest” as the correct metaphor to describe human relationship to natural resources. Those who think intrinsically tend to anthropomorphize nature, but it also leads people to see inherent worth in conservation, informed by scientific study of ecology and not mere exploitation. Worster concludes that cultural change must precede conservation efforts.

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Assessment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz for Donald Worster’s ‘Attitudes toward Water’” and “Guided Response to Reading Quiz”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz for Donald Worster’s ‘Attitudes toward Water’” (PDF) and “Guided Response to Reading Quiz” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the quiz for subunit 2.1.3.1, and answer the questions as explained in the quiz instructions. After you have answered these questions, please review the “Guided Response to Reading Quiz” for information on how to score your answers. Note: This quiz was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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2.1.3.2 Overgrazing

Reading: Encyclopedia of the Earth: C. Michael Hogan’s “Overgrazing”
Link: Encyclopedia of the Earth: C. Michael Hogan’s “Overgrazing” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article and view the accompanying images.

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2.1.3.3 Ancient Irrigation

Reading: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “Ancient Irrigation”
Link: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “Ancient Irrigation” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage.

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Reading: Water Encyclopedia: Larry W. Mays’ “Irrigation Systems: Ancient”
Link: Water Encyclopedia: Larry W. Mays’ “Irrigation Systems: Ancient” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire entry.

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2.1.4 Environmental Degradation and Societal Collapse

Reading: Common Dreams: excerpt from Derrick Jensen’s Endgame
Link: Common Dreams: excerpt from Derrick Jensen’s Endgame (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire excerpt. In this excerpt, Derrick Jensen discusses the human philosophies that underlie unsustainability.

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2.2 Urbanization and Environmental Change

Reading: Kansas State University: Professor James E. Sherow’s version of Samuel P. Hays’ “The Role of Urbanization in Environmental History”
Link: Kansas State University: Professor James E. Sherow’s version of Samuel P. Hays’ “The Role of Urbanization in Environmental History” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay.

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Reading: Kansas State University: Professor James E. Sherow’s version of Samuel P. Hays’ “Urbanization as the Source of Environmental Engagement”
Link: Kansas State University: Professor James E. Sherow’s version of Samuel P. Hays’ “Urbanization as the Source of Environmental Engagement” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay.

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2.2.1 Sewers

Reading: sewerhistory.org: Jon Schladweiler’s Tracking Down the Roots of our Sanitary Sewers Timeline
Link: sewerhistory.org: Jon Schladweiler’s Tracking Down the Roots of our Sanitary Sewers Timeline (HTML)

Instructions: Please review the entire timeline.

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Reading: sewerhistory.org: Harold Farnsworth Gray’s “Sewerage in Ancient and Medieval Times”
Link: sewerhistory.org: Harold Farnsworth Gray’s “Sewerage in Ancient and Medieval Times” (PDF)

Instructions: Scroll down the webpage to the “For Reference” section. Please click on “PDF version” for this article, and read it in its entirety. This article was originally published in Sewage Works Journal, Volume 12, No. 5 (Sept. 1940), 939–94.

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Reading: sewerhistory.org: Jon C. Schladweiler’s“Cloacina: Goddess of the Sewers”
Link: sewerhistory.org: Jon Schladweiler’s “Cloacina Goddess of the Sewers” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down to the bottom of the webpage under the “For Reference” section. Please click on “PDF version,” and read the linked article. Schladweiler is a historian associated with the Arizona Water & Pollution Control Association.

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2.2.2 Air Pollution

Lecture: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Air Pollution in a Historical Perspective”
Link: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Air Pollution in a Historical Perspective” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please scroll down to the titled videocast and watch the entire video.

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Web Media: Georgia Tech: AP History: “Air Pollution History” Slideshow
Link: Georgia Tech: AP History: “Air Pollution History” Slideshow (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on “Intro1_AP_History.pdf,” and review linked slideshow presentation in PDF format.

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2.2.3 Reshaping the Natural Environment

Reading: History World: Bamber Gascoigne’s “History of Canals”
Link: History World: Bamber Gascoigne’s “History of Canals” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article (2 pages).

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2.2.4 Environmental Causes of Urban Decline

Reading: Bryn Mawr Classical Review: John McMahon’s “Review of J. Donald Hughes’s Pan's Travail: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans”
Link: Bryn Mawr Classical Review: John McMahon’s “Review of J. Donald Hughes’s Pan's Travail: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire review.

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2.3 Religion

Reading: Wise Earth: Lynn Townsend White, Jr.’s “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”
Link: Wise Earth: Lynn Townsend White, Jr.’s “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. In this seminal text, medieval historian Lynn Townsend White, Jr. explains how humans saw the earth as existing to provide for their needs. White argues that the Judeo-Christian tradition itself was harmful to the environment, because it was fundamentally exploitative and preached human superiority over the earth.

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Assessment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz on Lynn Townsend White, Jr.’s ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’” and “Guide to Responding to the Reading Quiz”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz on Lynn Townsend White, Jr.’s ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’” (PDF) and “Guide to Responding to the Reading Quiz” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the quiz for subunit 2.3, and answer the questions as explained in the quiz instructions. Then, please review the “Guide to Responding to the Reading Quiz.” Note: This quiz was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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2.3.1 Understanding the Natural World

Reading: Carnegie Mellon University: Qatar’s version of The Seven Evil Spirits, or Descriptions of “The Seven”
Link: Carnegie Mellon University: Qatar’s version of the The Seven Evil Spirits,or Descriptions of “The Seven” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this webpage on the ancient Mesopotamian poem “Descriptions of ‘The Seven,’” a primary source from the earliest days of writing. This is an excerpt from a Babylonian civilization’s text from around four thousand years ago. In The Seven Evil Spirits, the Babylonian fear of harsh weather can be read in the characters of the spirits and the damage each can do. In animistic religions, unlike in modern monotheism, women often play a more central and exalted role.

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Reading: Ancient Texts: Timothy R. (Wolf) Carnahan’s version of Maureen Gallery Kovacs’ The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 1
Link: Ancient Texts: Timothy R. (Wolf) Carnahan’s version of Maureen Gallery Kovacs’ The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 1 (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire text. This is an excerpt from a text from the ancient Babylonian civilization that existed around four thousand years ago in the Mesopotamian region (literally, “between the rivers”). Like many pre-polytheistic religions, Mesopotamia was ruled by animism. The natural world was understood through intercession of gods and spirits. The translator in the version of The Epic of Gilgamesh above labels the seducer of Ekindu as a “harlot;” nonetheless, she hosts the forces of civilization, brought by domestication and fecund agriculture. These are often found embodied in an earth mother goddess.

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2.3.2 Responding to the Environment

Reading: University of Nevada, Las Vegas: “Religion of Egypt”
Link: University of Nevada, Las Vegas: “Religion of Egypt” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage.

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2.3.3 Moderating Human Interactions With the Natural World

Reading: Moderating Human Interactions With the Natural World: Totemism & Shamanism

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2.4 Trade and Commerce

2.4.1 Shaped By Environmental Conditions

Web Media: YouTube: University of Texas, Austin: Bruce Albert’s “Ancient Ecology”
Link: YouTube: University of Texas, Austin: Bruce Albert, “Ancient Ecology” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch this brief 2-minute YouTube video.

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Reading: Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Norway: Pekka Masonen, “Trans-Saharan Trade and the West African Discovery of the Mediterranean World”
Link: Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Norway:Pekka Masonen’s “Trans-Saharan Trade and the West African Discovery of the Mediterranean World” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay.

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2.4.2 The Commodification of Natural Resources

Reading: English Word Information: “Chemical Element: Tin”
Link: English Word Information: “Chemical Element: Tin” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the brief entry.

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Reading: History World: Bamber Gascoigne’s “Cornucopia of Precious Goods”
Link: History World: Bamber Gascoigne’s “Cornucopia of Precious Goods” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the brief entry.

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Reading: Phoenicia.org: “Phoenician Wine” and “Phoenician Mining”
Links: Phoenicia.org: “Phoenician Wine” (HTML) and “Phoenician Mining” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read both entries in their entirety. Trade became a feature of early civilizations. While agriculture could sustain them, cultures soon began to trade excess production for items they lacked. The shipping magnates of the Bronze Age were the Phoenicians. Although they traded their own goods, the Phoenicians were best known as the sea power that connected trade routes in Europe and the Middle East.

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Reading: Mexconnect: David Conrad’s “The Ancient Maya — A Commercial Empire”
Link: Mexconnect: David Conrad’s “The Ancient Maya — A Commercial Empire” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay.

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Unit 3: The Middle Ages

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, c. 462 CE, European civilization felt a power vacuum. The Celtic tribes of Europe had hastened the death of Rome, which had been Christianized in the 4th century CE by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine had also moved his capital from Rome to the former Bosphorus city of Byzantium, renaming the city Constantinople and initiating the first power schism in post-Roman Europe. Following Rome’s sacking in 462 CE by the Visigoth Theodoric II, Rome’s influence over European politics waned, which led to the ascendance of both the Catholic Church and local monarchies across Europe.

Much of the scholarship produced by the ancient, pre-Christian world was neglected by both the Church and by largely illiterate local power centers. The Church carved out for itself, through the exclusivity of education in Latin, a monopoly on ideas that extended into the Reformation. The relationship between humans and the natural world was limited to local superstition or the Bible until the St. Thomas Aquinas returned the exiled pagan philosophers the European intellectual canon in the 13th century CE, which led to the rise of science. Christianity’s stranglehold on the medieval mind was fundamentally shaken when it could not supply answers for the horrors of the Black Death of the 14th century. The scale of that natural disaster was such that it shook society to its foundations. Ultimately, a civilization fell because of the power of nature to humble humankind.

Unit 3 Time Advisory show close

Unit 3 Learning Outcomes show close

Reading: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Middle Ages Environmental Timeline”
Link: Environmental History Resources: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Middle Ages Environmental Timeline” (HTML)

Instructions: Please review the entire timeline. The resource is applicable to all unit 3 subunits.

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3.1 Medieval World View and the Environment

3.1.1 Feudalism

Reading: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 23: Medieval Society: The Three Orders”
Link: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 23: Medieval Society: The Three Orders” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the lecture in its entirety.

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3.1.2 Forests

Reading: Blythweb: Alan Mackley’s “The Poaching Priors of Blythburgh”
Link: Blythweb: Alan Mackley’s “The Poaching Priors of Blythburgh” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked webpage.

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Reading: Wolfsong of Alaska: Ivy Stanmore’s “The Disappearance of Wolves in the British Isles”
Link: Wolfsong of Alaska: Ivy Stanmore’s “The Disappearance of Wolves in the British Isles” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked webpage.

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Reading: Richard III Society: A. Compton Reeves’ “Delights of Life in Fifteenth-Century England”
Link: Richard III Society:A. Compton Reeves’“Delights of Life in Fifteenth-Century England” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked essay. Social immobility is one feature of medieval thought. Peasants were tied to the land or to their masters in a life-long apprenticeship program. Because of tithes owed to the land lord or the Church, shortage was very much a part of medieval life. Although the forests were off limits to those not of noble birth, poaching was widespread, as hunting was one way to supplement a meager diet.

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3.1.3 Land Use

Reading: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: Paul Halsall’s version of Palladius’ “On Husbandry, c. 350”
Link: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: Paul Halsall’s version of Palladius’ “On Husbandry, c. 350” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked essay. Palladius, a noted Roman author of the 4th century CE, wrote this essay c. 350 CE, near the very beginning of the medieval period. “On Husbandry” is a very early entry in a genre of advice writing on agricultural methods that grew throughout the Middle Ages.

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Reading: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: Paul Halsall’s version of “Dialogue between Master and Disciple on Laborers, c. 1000”
Link: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: Paul Halsall’s version of “Dialogue between Master and Disciple on Laborers, c. 1000” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked dialogue. Echoing Lynn Townsend White, Jr.’s analysis of the medieval mindset on human relationships to the environment, these two primary sources for this subunit, via Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook, indicate that humans should take what they need from the natural world as necessary. Also, they demonstrate the primacy in medieval life of physical labor and will give the student insight into the nature of medieval agriculture and knowledge.

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3.2 Plague

3.2.1 Human Interactions and Disease Transmission

Web Media: iTunes U: Yale University: Frank Snowden’s “(3)- Plague (1): Pestilence as a Disease (Video)”
Link: iTunesU: Yale University:Frank Snowden’s “(3)- Plague (1): Pestilence as a Disease (Video)” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 3. Click “View in iTunes”to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire linked lecture (48:55 minutes).

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3.2.2 Social and Political Consequences

Reading: University of California, Irvine: Dr. Barbara J. Becker’s version of Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Plague of Florence”
Link: University of California, Irvine: Dr. Barbara J. Becker’s version of Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Plague of Florence” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire primary source document. In this text, Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio describes the impact of the Bubonic Plague on the Italian city of Florence in the mid-14^th century. He discusses how the Plague decimated the city and disrupted Florentine society, noting that bodies filled the street and could not be given a proper Catholic burial. Boccaccio concludes that many residents gave up hope of survival and simply stopped caring about their daily lives.

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Reading: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 29: Satan Triumphant: The Black Death”
Link:Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 29: Satan Triumphant: The Black Death” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the lecture in its entirety.

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3.2.3 Long-Term Impact on European Society

Lecture: The Queen’s University of Belfast: Bruce M.S. Campbell’s “Nature as Historical Protagonist”
Link: The Queen’s University of Belfast: Bruce M.S. Campbell’s “Nature as Historical Protagonist” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please view this video lecture in its entirety (about 1 hour).

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Reading: Nipissing University: Steve Muhlberger’s version of Tales from Froissart: “Beginning of the English Peasant Revolt”
Link: Nipissing University: Steve Muhlberger’s version of Tales from Froissart: “Beginning of the English Peasant Revolt” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this selection from Tales from Froissart.

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Reading: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 30: In the Wake of the Black Death”
Link: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “In the Wake of the Black Death” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the lecture in its entirety. The Black Death fundamentally altered the culture and economy of Medieval Europe. Europe lost over 25 percent of its population, which created labor shortages and altered power relationships among peasants, nobles, and the Church. Peasants began to overthrow the yoke of feudal ties to the land, especially since whole areas were depopulated, and they began to demand social mobility and political freedoms. The Church, which had long dominated the medieval world view and had suppressed observational scientific study in favor of revealed truth, lost its vise grip on the medieval imagination, because scripture could neither explain the plague not protect the faithful from it.

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3.3 Global Environment

Reading: Medievalists.net: H. Goosse, et al.’s “The Origin of the European ‘Medieval Warm Period’”
Link: Medievalists.net: H. Goosse, et al.’s The Origin of the European ‘Medieval Warm Period’” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link “Click here to read/download this article (PDF file)” to open a PDF document. Please read the entire article (15 pages total).

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3.4 Medieval Warfare

Reading: Medievalists.net: Collin Davey and Monica L. Wright’s “Burning Down the House: Scorched Earth Tactics Suggested by Wace and Bayeux Tapestry”
Link: Medievalists.net: Collin Davey and Monica L. Wright’s “Burning Down the House: Scorched Earth Tactics Suggested by Wace and Bayeux Tapestry” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link “Click here to read/download this article” to open a PDF document. Please scroll down the PDF to page 52, where the article begins. Read the article in its entirety (pp. 52-56, bibliography pp. 57 and 58). This and other readings in subunit 3.4 examine the ways in which medieval warfare involved intentional destruction of resources and the built environment.

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Reading: Medievalists.net: Albrecht Fuess’s “Rotting Ships and Razed Harbors: The Naval Policy of the Mamluks”
Link: Medievalists.net: Albrecht Fuess’s “Rotting Ships and Razed Harbors: The Naval Policy of the Mamluks” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link “Click here to read/download this article (PDF file)” to open a PDF document. Please read the entire article (27 pages total).

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3.5 Medieval Industries and the Environment

Web Media: iTunes U Podcast: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Environmental History in the Middle Ages”
Link: iTunes U Podcast: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Environmental History in the Middle Ages” (Adobe Audio)

Instructions: Please listen to the entire podcast (22:21 minutes).

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Reading: Dartford Town Archive: “Medieval Industry: Industrial Developments in Medieval Dartford”
Link: Dartford Town Archive: “Medieval Industry: Industrial Developments in Medieval Dartford” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. This resource also covers the topics outlined for subunits 3.5.1–3.5.3.

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Reading: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “The Importance of Salt”
Link: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “The Importance of Salt” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the essay in its entirety. This resource also covers the topics outlined for subunits 3.5.1–3.5.3.

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3.5.1 Water-Powered Mills

Reading: Family Encyclopedia: “Harvesting the Air: The Mills of Medieval England, Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540”
Link: Family Encyclopedia: “Harvesting the Air: The Mills of Medieval England, Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the brief encyclopedicentry.

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3.5.2 Mining

Reading: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “Coal”
Link: University of California, Davis:Richard Cowen’s “Coal” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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3.5.3 Agriculture

Reading: Strange Horizons: Rachel Hartman’s “The Medieval Agricultural Year”
Link: Strange Horizons: Rachel Hartman’s “The Medieval Agricultural Year” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the articlein its entirety.

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Reading: The Flow of History: Chris Butler’s “The Agricultural Revolution in Medieval Europe”
Link: The Flow of History: Chris Butler’s “The Agricultural Revolution in Medieval Europe” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay.

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3.6 New Landscapes

3.6.1 Land Reclamation

Reading: Medievalists.net: Stephen Rippon’s “Reclamation and Regional Economies of Medieval Marshland in Britain”
Link: Medievalists.net: Stephen Rippon’s “Reclamation and Regional Economies of Medieval Marshland in Britain” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link “Click here to read this article from the University of Exeter” to open the PDF document. Please read the entire chapter (20 pages total). Soil depletion from many centuries of agriculture led landowners to reclaim alluvial soil as arable land.

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3.6.2 Enclosures

Reading: Oxford University’s Department of Economics: Elaine S. Tan’s “‘The Bull is Half the Herd’: Property Rights and Enclosures in England, 1750–1850”
Link: Oxford University’sDepartment of Economics:Elaine S. Tan’s “‘The Bull is Half the Herd’: Property Rights and Enclosures in England, 1750–1850” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down the webpage to item number 46, and click on the paper title to download the PDF file. Please read the essay in its entirety (32 pages total). The movement to enclose previously commonly farmed or grazed land prompted social upheaval in late medieval society. Many peasants who were formally bound to the land in service of landlord or noble were forced to leave centuries’ old manorial estates. This created population pressures as dispossessed farmers flock to the cities to look for work, which in turn fueled both voluntary and involuntary emigration.

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3.6.3 Environmental Change and Health

Reading: Medievalists.net: Richard Steckel’s “The Little Ice Age and Health: Europe from the Early Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century”
Link: Medievalists.net:Richard Steckel’s “The Little Ice Age and Health: Europe from the Early Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the link “Click here to read/download this article (PDF file)” to open the PDF document. Please read the entire article (34 pages total).

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3.6.4 Social Changes and Environmental Change

Reading: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 22: European Agrarian Society: Manorialism”
Link:Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 22: European Agrarian Society: Manorialism” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read thelecture in its entirety.

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3.7 Science and the Natural World

3.7.1 Struggles to Comprehend

Reading: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval History Sourcebook: Paul Halsall’s version of “Agobard of Lyons (9th Century): On Hail and Thunder”
Link: Fordham University’s Internet Medieval HistorySourcebook:Paul Halsall’sversion of “Agobard of Lyons (9th Century): On Hail and Thunder” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire primary source document. Agobard was the archbishop of Lyon. He issued treatises discussing scriptural grounds for various policies. Best known for his rabid anti-Semitism, for which he found scriptural support, Agobard lived at a time when the Church was still consolidating its absolute authority over local populations. Nominally Christians, many small communities were still fundamentally pagan and animist; they believed that local spirits controlled nature and appeal to their protection was essential to maintain natural balance. The Church often adopted the most persistent of these mythologies and made them part of the Catholic culture (for example, Christmas and Easter both have pre-Christian antecedents). In this text, Agobard writes that God is the source of hail and thunder in order to combat the belief that humans could ask a local spirit to intervene and cause weather. This reading indicates the ways in which the early medieval mind comprehended the natural world as being controlled by supernatural forces.

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3.7.2 Scientific Interest in the Natural World

Reading: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 24: The Medieval World View”
Link: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History: “Lecture 24: The Medieval World View” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the lecture in its entirety.

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Reading: Medievalists.net: Sanjek Franjo’s “The Studies of Exact and Natural Sciences in the History of the Dubrovnik Dominicans”
Link: Medievalists.net: Sanjek Franjo’s “The Studies of Exact and Natural Sciences in the History of the Dubrovnik Dominicans” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on “Click here to read this article from Dubrovnik Annals” to download the PDF file. Please read the entire paper (16 pages total).

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3.7.3 Growing Awareness of Environmental Impact on Human Life

Reading: Oxford University’s Department of Economics: S. Ryan Johansson’s “Medics, Monarchs, and Mortality, 1600-1800: Origins of the Knowledge-Driven Health Transition in Europe”
Link: Oxford University’sDepartment of Economics:S. Ryan Johansson’s “Medics, Monarchs, and Mortality, 1600-1800: Origins of the Knowledge-Driven Health Transition in Europe” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the paper title, listed as number 85,to download a PDF file. Read the essay in its entirety.

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Unit 4: The Columbian Exchange

European exploration of the Americas began in the 10th century CE with the voyages of Viking Leif Erikkson. Although the settlement of what is now Newfoundland failed after about sixty years, the Norse, as well as the Portuguese, fished the area around the Grand Banks for the next 800 years. Permanent settlement of South America and the Caribbean came in the late 15th and early 16th centuries,following the voyages of Christopher Columbus under the flag of Spain. Portuguese, French, and English colonization followed, and a triangle Atlantic trade quickly grew. Europeans shipped manufactured goods to Africa and the Americas, slaves from Africa, and natural resources from the Americas. Historian Alfred Crosby named the international footprint of this resource trade, “The Columbian Exchange.” The Columbian Exchange dramatically affected populations and environments on all three sides of the Triangle Trade. Europeans imported new species, resources, wealth, and slaves,while Africa and the Americas were hugely depopulated by slavery and disease, respectively, while Europeans imposed cultural assumptions about the environment on the new landscapes, dramatically altering them in the process. This unit will explore the environmental, cultural, demographic, and technological changes wrought by the Columbian Exchange.

Unit 4 Time Advisory show close

Unit 4 Learning Outcomes show close

4.1 Environments Collide

4.1.1 The Atlantic World

Web Media: Smithsonian National Museum of American History: The Kenneth E. Behring Center’s “On the Water: Living in the Atlantic World, 1450–1800”
Link: Smithsonian National Museum of American History: The Kenneth E. Behring Center’s “On the Water: Living in the Atlantic World, 1450–1800” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the text on each page of the exhibition, as well as view each image carefully. A link to each successive page can be found at the bottom of each page.

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4.1.2 Resource Exchange

Lecture: Slideshare: Dan McDowell’s “The Columbian Exchange”
Link: Slideshare: Dan McDowell’s “The Columbian Exchange” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please review the PowerPoint presentation(15 slides total).

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Reading: CATO Institute: Thomas Grennes’ “The Columbian Exchange and the Reversal of Fortune”
Link: CATO Institute:Thomas Grennes ’“The Columbian Exchange and the Reversal of Fortune” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down the webpage until you come across this title under the “Articles” section, and click on the title to open a PDF document. Please read the entire article (17 pages total). Thomas Grennes examines how the initial impact of the Columbian Exchange was to elevate Spain and Spanish America to economic powerhouse but after the initial boom caused by exportation of raw materials from New Spain bust followed. British North America was initially considered to be a bust because, unlike in South America, the colonizers discovered no gold. Nonetheless, the English-speaking Atlantic eventually triumphed economically in what Grennes calls “a reversal of fortune.”

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Reading: National Humanities Center: Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Plants, Animals, and Disease between the Old and New Worlds”
Link: National Humanities Center: Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Plants, Animals, and Disease between the Old and New Worlds” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire article. This reading is a general overview written by the scholar who named the phenomenon. This reading applies to the topics outlined for subunit 4.2.

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Reading: Texas A&M: Victor R. Boswell’s “Our Vegetable Travelers”
Link: Texas A&M: Victor R. Boswell’s “Our Vegetable Travelers” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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Assessment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz for Resource Exchange in the Columbian Exchange” and “Guided Response to the Reading Quiz”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz for Resource Exchange in the Columbian Exchange” (PDF) and “Guided Response to the Reading Quiz” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the quiz for subunit 4.1.2, and answer the questions under timed-test conditions as explained in the quiz instructions. Note: This quiz was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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4.1.3 European Species in the Americas

Reading: Live Science: Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio’s “The Surprising History of Horses in North America”
Link: Live Science: Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio’s “The Surprising History of Horses in North America” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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4.1.4 American Species in Europe

Reading: Smithsonian Magazine: Richard Wolkomir’s Review of Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
Link: Smithsonian Magazine: Richard Wolkomir’s Review of Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the review in its entirety.

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Reading: Oxford University’s Department of Economics: Regina Grafe’s “Popish Habits vs. Nutritional Need: Fasting and Fish Consumption in Iberia in the Early Modern Period”
Link: Oxford University’sDepartment of Economics:Regina Grafe’s “Popish Habits vs. Nutritional Need: Fasting and Fish Consumption in Iberia in the Early Modern Period” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down the webpage to item 55, and click on the paper’s title to download the PDF file. Please read the entire essay (44 pages total).

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Reading: Tobacco.org: Gene Borio’s “Tobacco Timeline: The Sixteenth Century—Sailors Spread the Seeds”
Link: Tobacco.org: Gene Borio’s “Tobacco Timeline: The Sixteenth Century—Sailors Spread the Seeds” (HTML)

Instructions: Please review the timeline.

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4.1.5 Impact of Columbian Exchange on the Environment of the Atlantic World

Reading: National Humanities Center: Timothy Silver’s “Three Worlds, Three Views: Culture and Environmental Change in the Colonial South”
Link: National Humanities Center: Timothy Silver’s “Three Worlds, Three Views: Culture and Environmental Change in the Colonial South” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the essay in its entirety. Historian and author of A New Face on the Countryside: Indians, Colonists, and Slaves in South Atlantic Forests, 1500-1800, Timothy Silver, examines the Triangle Trade and the environmental impact on the three sides of the Atlantic triangle.

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4.2 Human Impact

4.2.1 The Slave Trade

Reading: Slaveryinamerica.org: Dr. Ronald L.F. Davis’s “Slavery in America: Historical Overview”
Link: Slaveryinamerica.org: Dr. Ronald L.F. Davis’s “Slavery in America: Historical Overview” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the webpage in its entirety.

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Web Media: National Maritime Museum, United Kingdom: “The Triangular Trade”
Link: National Maritime Museum, United Kingdom: “The Triangular Trade” (HTML and Abobe Flash)

Instructions: Please read the text on the webpage, and explore the interactive map of the Atlantic trade.

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Reading: University of Virginia and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite, Jr.’s “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Life in the Americas: A Visual Record”
Link: University of Virginia and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: Jerome S. Handler and Michael L. Tuite, Jr.’s “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Life in the Americas: A Visual Record” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on “Explore the Collection” link on the left side of the website. Then, please click on the hyperlinks to navigate through the exhibition, and click on images of interest to enlarge them and read their accompanying text.

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4.2.2 Disease Transmission

Reading: University of Manitoba: Dr. Ian Carr’s “Plagues and Peoples: The Columbia Exchange”
Link: University of Manitoba: Dr. Ian Carr’s “Plagues and Peoples: The Columbia Exchange” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the essay in its entirety.

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4.2.3 New Food Crops

Reading: Gale Encyclopedia of Food and Culture: Ruben G. Mendoza’s “The Natural History of Maize”
Link: Gale Encyclopedia of Food and Culture: Ruben G. Mendoza’s “The Natural History of Maize” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire entry.

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Reading: Cambridge World History of Food: Ellen Messer’s “Potatoes”
Link: Cambridge World History of Food: Ellen Messer’s “Potatoes” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire entry. In this article, author Ellen Messer discusses the history of the potato from its origins in South America to its introduction into the European diet by Spanish explorers in the mid-16^th century. Messer characterizes the potato as an extremely important food crop in European and, later, global society, arguing that it continues to play an important role in agribusiness ventures throughout the world today.

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4.2.4 Impact on Africa

Web Media: iTunes U: Yale University: Robert Harms’ “Slave Traders and Colonialism in Equatorial Africa”
Link: iTunesU: Yale University: Robert Harms’ “Slave Traders and Colonialism in Equatorial Africa” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 24. Click “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire linked video lecture (24:23minutes).

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Reading: Hofstra University: Alan J. Singer’s “The Impact of the Columbian Exchange on West Africa”
Link: Hofstra University:Alan J. Singer’s “The Impact of the Columbian Exchange on West Africa” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down the webpage to the article’s title, under the “Ninth and Tenth Grade” section, and click on the titleto open the PDF document. Please read the article in its entirety. This resource gives a good overview on the African experience of the Triangle Trade.

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4.2.5 Impact on Europe

Reading: Yale University: Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian’s “Impact of Potatoes on Old World Population and Urbanization”
Link: Yale University: Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian’s “Impact of Potatoes on Old World Population and Urbanization” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the PDF hyperlink under the “Publications” section of the webpage to access the text. Please read pages 1–10.

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Reading: CNN: Edythe Preet’s “Thanks for the Miracle of Corn”
Link: CNN: Edythe Preet’s “Thanks for the Miracle of Corn” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the article in its entirety.

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4.2.6 Impact on Americas

Reading: Discover Magazine: Bruce Stutz’s “Megadeath in Mexico”
Link: Discover Magazine:Bruce Stutz’s “Megadeath in Mexico” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. Be sure to click on “Next page” at the bottom of the first webpage to continue reading the article (2 pages total).

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Reading: University of Massachusetts, Amherst: Peter d’Errico’s “Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets”
Link: University of Massachusetts, Amherst: Peter d’Errico’s “Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked article,and click on the embedded hyperlinks and images to explore the media. Massive deaths resulting from introduced species of disease are historically and scientifically verifiable, but the historical community is not in agreement over how many people lived in the Americas prior to mass colonization, so there is disagreement over how many died, and there is contention over whether Europeans intentionally sought death on the scale that was achieved, whether the term “genocide” is appropriate. Peter d’Errico believes that intentional eradication was very much a feature of European thinking regarding indigenous Americans; Guenter Lewy (below) disputes this.

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Reading: George Mason University’s History News Network: Guenter Lewy’s “Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?”
Link: George Mason University’s History News Network: Guenter Lewy’s “Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked article.

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4.3 Technology and the Environment

4.3.1 European Technologies Introduced to Americas

Reading: University of Nebraska: Andrew LaBounty’s “Technological Introductions and Social Change: European Technology on the Great Plains”
Link: University of Nebraska: Andrew LaBounty’s “Technological Introductions and Social Change: European Technology on the Great Plains” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the “Download” button to open a PDF file. Please read the entire article (11 pages).

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4.3.2 Technologies Adapted by Europeans

Reading: Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: “Rice and Culture Trade”
Link: Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History: “Rice and Culture Trade” (HTML)

Instructions: Please note that this resource also applies to the topics outlined in subunits 4.3.3 and 4.3.4. Please read the brief entry. Africans transported to the Americas as slaves brought no possessions with them. They did, however, bring culture and knowledge into bondage. Whereas Europeans were not well adapted to living in hot and humid climates, African slaves had generations of experience to draw on, especially in farming and animal husbandry. Europeans relied heavily on Africans’ technical know-how especially in the cultivation of cash crops like rice and indigo in the swamps of the southern English colonies. Furthermore, many technologies uniquely adapted to conditions in the new colonies were adopted by Europeans.

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Reading: Powhatan Museum of Indigenous Arts and Culture: Auld/Powhatan’s “The Taíno Culture”
Link: Powhatan Museum of Indigenous Arts and Culture: Auld/Powhatan’s “The Taíno Culture” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. Please note that this resource also applies to the topics outlined in subunits 4.3.3 and 4.3.4.

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4.3.3 African Cultural Exchanges

Reading: Beacon Press: Shane White and Graham White’s The Sounds of Slavery: “Chapter 1: ‘All We Knowed Was Go and Come by de Bells and Horns’”
Link: Beacon Press: Shane White and Graham White’s The Sounds of Slavery: “Chapter 1: ‘All We Knowed Was Go and Come by de Bells and Horns’” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the hyperlink titled “Read the first chapter (.pdf)” to open the PDF document. Please read the entire chapter (19 pages total). Slavery and the slave trade introduced many African cultures to the Americas and European culture. Africans were forced to become Christians and taught only enough English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese to be able to understand commands from their owners. Forced into insular and subservient societies, remnants of many African cultures gradually mixed with the dominant European cultures, irrevocably changing both. Ironically, African American culture is now one of the biggest cultural exports from the Americas to the rest of the world, especially in the form of music.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Questions for Shane White and Graham White’s The Sounds of Slavery: Chapter 1” and “Guide to Responding to Study Questions”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Questions for Shane White and Graham White’s The Sounds of Slavery: Chapter 1” (PDF) and “Guide to Responding to Study Questions” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the study questions for subunit 4.3.3, and follow the directions as explained in the instructions. Then, download the guide to responding, and review this information. Note: This resource was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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Web Media: WBUR’s OnPoint (NPR): Tom Ashbrook’s Interview with Jessica Harris, “African-American Food’s History and Soul”
Link: WBUR’s OnPoint (NPR): Tom Ashbrook’s Interview with Jessica Harris, “African-American Food’s History and Soul” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please click on the button “Listen to this Show,” and listen to the entire radio broadcast (46:28 minutes).

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Web Media: YouTube: BBtv World, Xeni Jardin’s “Roots of Voudun and Slavery's Legacy in Ouidah, Benin”
Link: YouTube: BBtv World, Xeni Jardin’s “Roots of Voudun and Slavery's Legacy in Ouidah, Benin” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch the brief 7-minute video.

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4.3.4 Technologies and Trade

Reading: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Aubrey Parkman’s “History of the Waterways of the Atlantic Coast of the United States”
Link: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:Aubrey Parkman’s “History of the Waterways of the Atlantic Coast of the United States” (PDF)

Instructions: The link above is to the “H” section of the alphabetical list of the Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Water Resources publications. Follow the link, and scroll downabout ¾ of the page to the article titled (NWS-15). Please click on the “download” link on the right to open the PDF document. Please read pages 1–14.

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4.4 European Values and the American Landscape

4.4.1 European Efforts to Reshape American Landscape

Reading: Helium: Food and Agriculture: Josephine Polifroni’s “The Effect of Corn Monoculture on Soils”
Link: Helium: Food and Agriculture: Josephine Polifroni’s “The Effect of Corn Monoculture on Soils” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the article in its entirety. Josephine Polifroni’s short essay on the impact of corn monoculture details the ways in which imposition of monoculture impacts soil.

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Reading: William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature"
Link: William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll to the title, and click on “available here” to open a PDF document. This essay by noted environmental historian William Cronon was originally published in William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (W. W. Norton, 1995), 69–90). Please read the entire article. Cronon discusses what he perceives as the wrongheadedness of trying to turn land “back” to wilderness. Cronon argues that the American continent was not an “uninhabited wilderness” when Europeans colonized it; therefore, modern environmentalists are imposing a new idea on the land by attempting to make wilderness “pristine.”

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4.4.2 Impact of American Environment on European Colonizers

Reading: Environmental Literacy Council: John Opie’s Teaching Module: “Early America 1630–1812”
Link: Environmental Literacy Council: John Opie’s Teaching Module: “Early America 1630–1812” (PDF)

Instructions: Please locate the titled module in the frame on the right. Please click on the title to open a PDF document, and read the entire PDF resource (44 pages total). Please feel free to explore the online resources.

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4.4.3 Settlement Patterns and the Built Environment

Web Media: Preservation Virginia: “Jamestown Rediscovery”
Link: Preservation Virginia: “Jamestown Rediscovery” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on the following links at the top of the webpage: “Findings,” “Exhibitions,” and “History.” Read the text on each webpage, and click on any embedded hyperlinks for more information. The first permanent British settlement in North America was at Jamestown in Virginia (named for Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen). Virginia was also the first permanent success of the British Empire. Archaeology at the site of the original Jamestown settlement adds to historians’ knowledge about these early adventurers and their fragile society.

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Web Media: iTunes U Podcast: K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Empire and Environmental Anxiety”
Link: iTunesU Podcast:K.J.W. Oosthoek’s “Empire and Environmental Anxiety” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 10 and listen to this podcast in its entirety (21:56 minutes). K.J.W. Oosthoek examines causes of anxiety in the later British Empire, especially in tropical climates.

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Unit 5: Industrialization

World industrialization began in England and the United States in the 18th century. Marked especially by the burning of fossil fuels for energy, intensive agriculture, the formation of both a middle class and an unskilled, wage-earning class, the industrial revolutions fundamentally reorganized society, hugely increased pollution, contributed to massive deforestation (especially in the United States), and launched a wave of internal migration to urban areas, international immigration to the Americas, and forced transportation to Australia. Industrialization also contributed to secularization and the rise of experimental science, social science, scientism, professionalization,colonization, and political reaction to degraded and immiserating conditions. Industrialization fundamentally reorders societies anddramatically impacts environments and economies. Industrialization as a process continues at various speeds around the world. This unit will explore the conditions created by industrialization.

Unit 5 Time Advisory show close

Unit 5 Learning Outcomes show close

5.1 The Industrial Revolution in the U.K.

Web Media: iTunes U: Oxford University: Marylyn Palmer’s “Societies in Transition: Industrial Transformation”
Link: iTunesU: Oxford University: Marylyn Palmer’s “Societies in Transition: Industrial Transformation” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 2. Click “View in iTunes” to download the lecture. Please listen to the entire linked lecture (59:47 minutes). This resource also covers the topics outlined for 5.1.1-5.1.4.

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Reading: The Free Resource: B. Sobey’s “Industrial Revolutions: Timeline, Facts, and Resources”
Link: The Free Resource: B. Sobey’s “Industrial Revolutions: Timeline, Facts, and Resources” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the text and review the timeline on this webpage. Note that this resource covers the topics for subunits 5.1 through 5.5.

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Reading: Clemson University: Pamela E. Mack’s “The British Industrial Revolution”
Link: Clemson University: Pamela E. Mack’s “The British Industrial Revolution” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the outline on this webpage. This resource covers the topics outlined for subunits 5.1 through 5.5.

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5.1.1 New, Artificial Means of Energy Production

Reading: University of California, Davis: Gregory Clark and David Jacks’ “Coal and the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1869”
Link: University of California, Davis: Gregory Clark and David Jacks’ “Coal and the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1869” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on title to download the PDF file. Please read pages 1–28. Environmental history is an interdisciplinary study that includes, or is enhanced by, the studies of science and math. This course was not designed to require any specific mathematical, statistical, or scientific knowledge. However, if you possess such knowledge, the statistical data and formulae in this paper are quite informative, as are the charts following page 28. Please note that mathematical, statistical, and scientific knowledge will not be tested in this course.

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5.1.2 Greater Dependence on Commercial Agriculture

Reading: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History: “Lecture 17: Origins of the Industrial Revolution in England.”
Link: Dr. Steven Kreis’s The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History: “Lecture 17: Origins of the Industrial Revolution in England” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the lecture in its entirety.

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Reading: Oxford University’s Department of Economics: Liam Brunt’s “‘Where There's Muck There's Brass’: The Market for Manure in the Industrial Revolution”
Link: Oxford University’s Department of Economics: Liam Brunt’s “‘Where There's Muck There's Brass’: The Market for Manure in the Industrial Revolution” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down the webpage to item number 35, and click on the article’s title to download the PDF file. Please read the essay in its entirety (31 pages total).

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5.1.3 Health Impact

Reading: Scottish Mining’s version of George Steele, Esq.’s “On the Expectoration of Black Matter from the Lungs” (1837)
Link: Scottish Mining’s version of George Steele, Esq.’s “On the Expectoration of Black Matter from the Lungs” (1837) (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire primary source document. A Scottish doctor records the two causes for expectorating black matter from the lungs. In one case, miners simply spit out the aspirated coal dust; the other is a pulmonary disease that would come to be known as “black lung” or pneumoconiosis.

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5.1.4 Environmental Impact

Reading: University of California, Irvine: Dr. Barbara J. Becker’s version of Michael Faraday’s “Letter to the Editor,” July 7, 1855
Link: University of California, Irvine: Dr. Barbara J. Becker’s version of Michael Faraday’s “Letter to the Editor,”(HTML) July 7, 1855

Instructions: Please read this entire primary source. In this letter, British scientist Michael Faraday complains about the polluted condition of the River Thames in London. He observes that the river is filthy and has a putrid smell. He questions why city authorities allow the river to serve as a receptacle for raw sewage and industrial waste and warns that the Thames’ polluted condition will eventually lead to health risks for city residents.

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5.2 Population and the Industrial Revolution

5.2.1 Malthusian Population Pressures

Reading: iTunes U Booklet: Lüdwig-Maximilians-Universität München: John Komlos’ “The Industrial Revolution as the Escape from the Malthusian Trap”
Link: iTunesU Booklet: Lüdwig-Maximilians-Universität München: John Komlos’ “The Industrial Revolution as the Escape from the Malthusian Trap” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to item no. 127. Click on the “View in iTunes” tab on the right. The booklet will download in iTunes. Double-click on the title to open the booklet as a PDF document.

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5.2.2 European Migration

Reading: Casa Historia: J. Williams’ World Mass Migration: “Chapter 4: What Drove European Emigration?”
Link: Casa Historia: J. Williams’ World Mass Migration: “Chapter 4: What Drove European Emigration?” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on the hyperlink of the title“What Drove European Emigration?” under “Section 2. Reasons for Emigration” to open the PDF document. Please read the entire document (31 pages total). Enclosure of formerly communally-shared land forced many farm families to look for work in Europe’s cities. This population shift was both a cause and effect of industrialization. Population growth and density demanded increasingly intense agriculture, which in turn pushed subsistence farmers off the land. Industrialization created jobs for the refugees but only the lowest wage jobs, which left families in immiserating conditions. Even though they were often ultimately illusory, successes reported in overseas colonies pulled families to leave their home countries to seek better conditions overseas.

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5.3 Industrial Revolution in the United States

Reading: University of Houston’s Digital History: “Guided Readings: The Making of Modern America”
Link: University of Houston’s Digital History: “Guided Readings: The Making of Modern America” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read all seven webpages: “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” “An Age of Innovation,” “The Birth of Modern Culture,” “The Revolt against Victorianism,” “The Rise of Mass Communication,” “Commercialized Leisure,” and “The University.” You may click on each individual hyperlink from the main contents page, or you may click on the “next” hyperlink to navigate to each subsequent webpage. This resource applies to subunits 5.2.1 through5.2.4.

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5.3.1 Machine Versus the Garden

Reading: University of Virginia Crossroad Project: Kathryn Peltier’s “Pastoralism”
Link: University of Virginia Crossroad Project: Kathryn Peltier’s “Pastoralism” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the definition in its entirety. Literary critic, Leo Marx, put forth a theory of American development in his pivotal text The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal. Although his method and conclusions are not universally accepted, his idea that the United States was romanticized at the end of the 19^th century as an unspoiled pastoral paradise has much merit. Although the United States emerged from its industrial period as a world economic power, in the early days, people debated industrialization as being counter to America’s essential nature as a nation of yeomen farmers and great natural beauty. This description also applies to all readings in subunit 5.3.1

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Reading: Reading: University of Virginia Crossroads Project: “Re-viewing Nature; Machines and Industry; Greek Revival Architecture”
Link: University of Virginia Crossroads Project: “Re-viewing Nature; Machines and Industry; Greek Revival Architecture” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage, and view the images carefully.

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Reading: San Jose State University: Andrew Wood’s “Joel Garreau's Machine and Garden”
Link: San Jose State University: Andrew Wood’s “Joel Garreau's Machine and Garden” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked notes in their entirety.

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5.3.2 Technology and the American Landscape

Reading: National Park Service: James C. Williams’ “Technology and Engineering in the American Experience: A Survey of Literature”
Link: National Park Service:James C. Williams’ “Technology and Engineering in the American Experience: A Survey of Literature” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage.

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5.3.3 Human Impact of New Technologies

Reading: Radford University: Mark Neuzil and Bill Kovarik’s Mass Media & Environmental Conflict: “Chapter 8: The Radium Girls”
Link: Radford University:Mark Neuzil and Bill Kovarik’sMass Media & Environmental Conflict: “Chapter8: The Radium Girls” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage. The rate of technological innovation and invention skyrocketed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the U.S. Labor practices, however, remained exploitative and unsafe. New discoveries were not thoroughly investigated before being sent for manufacturing. Lacking any governmental regulation of industry under concept of laissez faire capitalism, safety concerns for workers were left up to individual conscience. The press, however, was situated to raise the alarm of harmful practices. This chapter explores the role of the press in exposing the danger to workers in manufacturing that used the newly discovered element radium.

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5.3.4 Ideology and the 1930s U.S.

Reading: Kansas State University: Donald Worster’s “Agrarianism and Nature”
Link: Kansas State University: Donald Worster’s “Agrarianism and Nature” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read entire webpage. Noted environmental historian Donald Worster discusses the idea of “agrarianism,” which he defines as agriculture turned into a moral ideology. British settlers in the U.S. long believed that “improving” the land gives it value. Because Native Americans did not fence (enclose) and plow the land but rather shared the land communally for hunting or horticulture, colonists believed that they gave the land value by farming it and thus earned the right to claim ownership. This idea that agriculture itself somehow bestows moral right in a given situation was fed by the yeoman ideal of Thomas Jefferson. The 1930s disaster in the Midwest showed the limits of believing that farming itself is a moral right.

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Assessment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz for Donald Worster’s ‘Agrarianism and Nature’” and “Guide to Responding to Reading Quiz”
Links: The Saylor Foundation’s “Reading Quiz for Donald Worster’s ‘Agrarianism and Nature’” (PDF) and “Guide to Responding to Reading Quiz” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the reading quiz for Worster’s “Agrarianism and Nature,” the first reading in subunit 5.3.4. Please follow the directions on the attached quiz. Then, download and review the “Guide to Responding to the Reading Quiz.” Note: This quiz was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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Reading: Kate Sampsell’s “Broken Land: the Dust Bowl as Moral Failing”
Link: Kate Sampsell’s “Broken Land: the Dust Bowl as Moral Failing”

Instructions: Please read the linked article. This review essay, originally published in American Quarterly 55 (Winter 2003), 761–69, discusses the Dust Bowl of the 1930s in the tradition of Donald Worster’s “Agrarianism and Nature.”

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Web Media: Wessel’s Living History Farm, York, Nebraska: “Farming in the 1930s”
Link: Wessel’s Living History Farm, York, Nebraska: “Farming in the 1930s” (HTML and Quicktime)

Instructions: Explore the entire section on farming in the 1930s and listen to the oral history interviews.

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5.3.5 Balancing Technological and Environmental Change

Reading: San Diego State University’s World History for Us All: “The Half Century of Crisis: 1900–1950 CE”
Link: San Diego State University’s World History for Us All: “The Half Century of Crisis: 1900–1950 CE” (HTML)

Instructions: Please scroll down to the chart at the bottom of the webpage, and click on the hyperlink titled “Complete Teaching Unit PDF Format” for item 8.7 titled “Environmental Change: The Great Acceleration” to open the PDF document. Please read the entire document (39 pages total).

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5.3.6 Progressive-Era Environmental Reform

Reading: H-Net: Gregory J. Dehler’s “The Progressive Era Environmental Values”
Link: H-Net: Gregory J. Dehler’s “The Progressive Era Environmental Values” (HTML or PDF)

Instructions: Please read Dehler’s whole review of David Stradling, ed.’s Conservation in the Progressive Era. Historian Gregory J. Dehler outlines the areas of environmental action that concerned progressives in the period 1890–1916. You can access the PDF by clicking the “printable verison” link at the top of the page.

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5.3.6.1 Forests and Public Land

Reading: The Sierra Club’s version of Theodore Roosevelt’s “John Muir: An Appreciation”
Link: The Sierra Club’s version of Theodore Roosevelt’s “John Muir: An Appreciation” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this excerpt of the primary source document, originally published in Outlook 109 (January 16, 1915), pp. 27–28. Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Gifford Pinchot are the three biggest names in the Progressive-Era movement to set aside public lands for conservation.

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Web Media: YouTube: National Forest Service’s “The Greatest Good, Part I” and “The Greatest Good, Part II”
Link: YouTube: National Forest Service’s “The Greatest Good, Part I” and “The Greatest Good, Part II” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please view both videos (about 20 minutes total).

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Web Media: YouTube: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Visions of the Wild
Link: YouTube: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Visions of the Wild (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch the linked video (4:29 minutes).

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5.3.6.2 Eugenics

Reading: Princeton University: Thomas C. Leonard’s “Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era”
Link: Princeton University: Thomas C. Leonard’s “Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll down about half way on the webpage to the section titled “History of Economics.” Under this header, please click on the title “Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era” to open the PDF document. Please read the entire essay (18 pages total). Note that this essay was originally published in Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(4): 207–24.

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Assignment: The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Questions for Thomas C. Leonard’s ‘Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era” and “Guide to Responding to Study Questions”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Study Questions for Thomas C. Leonard’s ‘Retrospectives: Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era” (PDF) and “Guide to Responding to Study Questions” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the guide for subunit 5.3.6.2, and follow the directions as explained in the instructions. Then, download and review the “Guide to Responding to Study Questions.” Note: This resource was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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5.3.6.3 Occupational Environment

Reading: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Kate Sampsell-Willmann’s “Using Lewis Hine’s Child Labor Photographs” and “Using Lewis Hine’s Child Labor Photographs, Part Two: Miners”
Links: Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Kate Sampsell-Willmann’s “Using Lewis Hine’s Child Labor Photographs” (HTML) and “Using Lewis Hine’s Child Labor Photographs, Part Two: Miners” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read these two webpages in their entirety. Social reformers in the Progressive Era turned to media to expose the conditions in which especially women and children labored. Lewis Hine was the first social documentary photographer who made pictures of the conditions in which children labored as adults to convince a skeptical nation that those conditions existed. In the late 19^th century, Jacob Riis had launched a similar program, targeting conditions in the tenements of New York. For more information, please see subunits 5.4.2 and 5.4.7 below.

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5.4 Modern Urbanization

5.4.1 Rapid Growth of Industrial Cities

Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of Frederick Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England: “The Great Towns” (1843)
Link: Project Gutenberg’s version of Frederick Engels’s The Condition of the Working Class in England: “The Great Towns”(1843) (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire webpage. The readings for subunit 5.3.1 apply to subunits 5.3.2 and 5.3.3.

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Reading: Bartleby’s version of Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York: “The Genesis of the Tenement” (1890)
Link: Bartleby’s version of Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York: “The Genesis of the Tenement” (1890)

Instructions: Please read this entire webpage. The readings for subunit 5.3.1 apply to subunits 5.3.2 and 5.3.3.

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5.4.5 Environment and Social Impact

Reading: PBS: Africans in America: “Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery”: “The Cotton Gin”
Link: PBS: Africans in America: “Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery”: “The Cotton Gin” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire short entry. The article reexamines the myth of the cotton gin as a uniformly beneficial invention and points out that it was the tool by which cotton growing could be made enormously profitable. The cotton gin led to “King Cotton” dominating the agricultural South’s economy, for which a large labor force was needed. Unfortunately, that labor force was enslaved.

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Reading: Library of Economics and Liberty: Clark Nardinelli’s “Industrial Revolutions and the Standard of Living”
Link: Library of Economics and Liberty: Clark Nardinelli’s “Industrial Revolutions and the Standard of Living” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. This text explores the question of whether industrialization contributed to the betterment of the human condition or in fact worsened it.

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5.4.6 Response to Ecological and Environmental Problems

Reading: National Park Service: Dwight T. Pitcaithley’s “Philosophical Underpinnings of the National Park Idea”
Link: National Park Service: Dwight T. Pitcaithley’s “Philosophical Underpinnings of the National Park Idea” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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Reading: The Atlantic: Sage Stossel’s “Landscape Artist: A Conversation with Witold Rybczynski”
Link: The Atlantic: Sage Stossel’s “Landscape Artist: A Conversation with Witold Rybczynski.” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage, which includes an introduction to the biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, A Clearing in the Distance, and Sage Stossel’s interview with the biographer, Rybczynski. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted is widely accepted as the leading figure in urban landscape architecture and father of the city parks idea. He added green spaces to cities during America’s Gilded Age (1880–1900) to meliorate some of the environmental degradation, congestion, and ill health effects of densely packed industrial centers.

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5.4.7 Regulation and Planning Versus Lassez Faire Development

Reading: Bartleby’s version of Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York: “How the Case Stands Now” (1890)
Link: Bartleby’s version of Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York: “How the Case Stands Now” (1890)(HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked webpage.

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Reading: Slate: Witold Rybczynski’s “Suburban Despair: Is Urban Sprawl Really an American Menace?”
Link: Slate: Witold Rybczynski’s “Suburban Despair: Is Urban Sprawl Really an American Menace?” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire article, in which urban historian Witold Ryncznski examines urban sprawl in its historical context and concludes that it is not unique to modern societies.

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5.5 Science and the Environment

5.5.1 Harnessing the Power of Nature

Web Media: The History Channel: “Tennessee Valley Authority: Nature’s Power Harnessed”
Link: The History Channel: “Tennessee Valley Authority: Nature’s Power Harnessed” (Flash Video)

Instructions: Please watch this brief 3-minute video on the History Channel’s website. Please note that the video will automatically begin after a brief advertisement.

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Reading: Telosnet: Darrell M. Dodge’s “Illustrated History of Wind Power Developments: Part 2, 20th-Century Developments”
Link: Telosnet: Darrell M. Dodge’s “Illustrated History of Wind Power Developments: Part 2, 20th-Century Developments” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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Reading: Bicycle City: “Alternative Energy Pioneers”
Link: Bicycle City: “Alternative Energy Pioneers” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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5.5.2 Modifying the Environment

Web Media: The Open University: “Environmental Ethics”
Link: The Open University: “Environmental Ethics” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Read the introduction, and under the “Tracks in this Podcast” section, click on the linksto tracks 2-6: “The Dairy Farmer,” “The Crop Scientist,” “The Activist,” “The Organic Farmer,” and “GM: Points of View.” After clicking on each hyperlink to go to the videocast, please also click on the “Read a Transcript of this Track” hyperlink on each webpage for accompanying text. Each track is about 2-4 minutes in length.

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Reading: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “Man-made Subsidence.”
Link: University of California, Davis: Richard Cowen’s “Man-made Subsidence” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire webpage.

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5.5.3 Studying the Environment

Web Media: iTunes U: Yale University: “France Since 1871, “06 – The Waning of Religious Authority (Video)”
Link: iTunesU: Yale University: “France Since 1871, “06 – The Waning of Religious Authority (Video)” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 6. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire iTunes lecture (51:28minutes).

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Reading: National Park Service: Adam Rome’s “Conservation, Preservation, and Environmental Activism: A Survey of the Historical Literature”
Link: National Park Service: Adam Rome’s “Conservation, Preservation, and Environmental Activism: A Survey of the Historical Literature” (HTML)

Instructions: Please review this entire annotated bibliography.

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5.5.4 Changing Scientific Attitudes towards the Natural World

5.5.4.1 Water Conservation in the 1970s’ U.S.

Reading: Army Corps of Engineers: Institute for Water Resources’ “The 1978 Water Conservation Study”
Link: Army Corps of Engineers: Institute for Water Resources’ “The 1978 Water Conservation Study” (PDF)

Instructions: Click on the link for the PDF file “The Role of Conservation in Water Supply Planning (Report 79-2)” under the section “Learn More.” Read the introduction and section II of the typescript, “A Definition of Water Conservation,” pp. 1–62.

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Unit 6: Reshaping the Modern Environment

Industrialization led to the institutionalization of market-powered economic capitalism. Economies were no longer designed to be self-sustaining. Industrial economies could only grow if markets were continually generated so that production could be continually expanded. This process of market expansion and production increase worked on two ends to shape modern environments. Market expansion took place in non-industrial societies, which had the effect of introducing industrialization in order to duplicate profits that were being made in economies and the demand for raw materials expanded at the same rate as production. Once materials were exhausted, new sources had to be found, often at the expense of pre-industrial societies. The very system of exploitation, production, and consumption came to be the ruling idea that cannot be challenged. Technology became the new god and capitalism the new religion.

As societies became fully industrialized, every action had profound environmental effects. In the twentieth century, generation of energy to support production and new populations centered around manufacturing, transportation on a macro level, agribusiness, and commerce, which all proceeded based only on economic need and desire with very little reflection on environmental consequences. Of course, political necessity rivaled economics as a source of motivation, and the technological wars of the twentieth century had the most dramatic impact of all on the natural world. This unit will explore the changes wrought by modern faith in the elevation of economics and politics over natural systems.

Unit 6 Time Advisory show close

Unit 6 Learning Outcomes show close

6.1 Theories of Industrialization

6.1.1 Technology as Religion

Reading: Bartleby’s version of Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams: “The Virgin and the Dynamo”
Link: Bartleby’s version of Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams: “The Virgin and the Dynamo” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire primary source excerpt. Although James refers to himself in the third person, this is a chapter from his autobiography. In “The Virgin and the Dynamo,” Adams reflects on the motivational power of technology in building modern urban civilization as similar to the power of the cult of the Virgin Mary to inspire the building of Medieval cathedrals. The dynamo (symbolizing technology) has become the new icon to which shrines are built and dedicated.

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Reading: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guide to Responding to Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams: ‘The Virgin and the Dynamo’”
Link: The Saylor Foundation’s “Guide to Responding to Henry Adams’The Education of Henry Adams: ‘The Virgin and the Dynamo’” (PDF)

Instructions: Please download the guide for the first reading in subunit 6.1.1, and read through the entire document. Note: This resource was developed for the Saylor Foundation by Kate Sampsell-Willmann.
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6.1.2 Industrialization and Economic Ethics

Web Media: iTunes U: University of California, Berkeley: “Capitalism and Its Critics”
Link: iTunesU: University of California, Berkeley: “Capitalism and Its Critics” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please listen scroll to lecture no. 15. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire iTunes lecture (1:17:26 minutes).

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6.2 Redefining Landscapes

6.2.1 Transportation

Reading: University of Kassel: Richard Vahrenkamp’s “Roads Without Cars: The HAFRABA Association and the Autobahn Project 1933–1943 in Germany”
Link: University of Kassel: Richard Vahrenkamp’s “Roads Without Cars: The HAFRABA Association and the Autobahn Project 1933–1943 in Germany” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the hyperlink for the title to open the PDF document. Please read pages 1–33.

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Reading: American History: Logan Thomas Snyder’s “President Dwight D. Eisenhower and America’s Interstate Highway System”
Link: American History: Logan Thomas Snyder’s “President Dwight D. Eisenhower and America’s Interstate Highway System” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article. A significant feature of developed societies is a network of high quality road systems that permit people to live in places far from concentrated population centers or far from mass transit systems. One yardstick of economic health is the number of new housing starts recorded each year. Rather than rehabilitate traditional population centers, new housing statistics indicate how much former forest or farmland is being converted to paved surfaces. Highways that allow commuting enable developers to push housing complexes farther afield, diffusing population and inviting subsequent support development to follow. The two readings in subunit 6.2.1 provide the history of the national highway idea.

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6.2.2 Industry

Reading: European Route of Industrial Heritage: “Shaping the Earth: European Theme Route Industrial Landscapes”
Link: European Route of Industrial Heritage: “Shaping the Earth: European Theme Route Industrial Landscapes” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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Reading: Australian Landscape Architects Association: Helen Armstrong’s “Time, Dereliction, and Beauty: An Argument for ‘Landscapes of Contempt’”
Link: Australian Landscape Architects Association: Helen Armstrong’s “Time, Dereliction, and Beauty: An Argument for ‘Landscapes of Contempt’” (PDF)

Instructions: Please scroll to the section on Session Speakers, and click on the title of the paper to open the PDF document. Please read the conference paper in its entirety (12 pages). Costs related to maintaining a work force has pushed corporations to move their manufacturing operations to developing countries with low-cost labor and political friendliness to environmental degradation. Whereas industrialization first occurred in Western Europe and the United States, these societies now identify as post-industrial. Cessation of manufacturing has left abandoned factories and other industrial artifacts in “rust belts” in much of the U.S. and British Commonwealth. This reading and “Shaping the Earth: European Theme Route Industrial Landscapes” (above, also in subunit 6.2.2) discuss the aesthetics of post-industrial decay.

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6.2.3 Population Growth

Lecture: Academic Earth: Yale University: Robert Wyman’s “Human and Environmental Impacts”
Link: Academic Earth: Yale University: Robert Wyman’s “Human and Environmental Impacts” (Flash Video)

Also available in:
iTunes Podcast (#12)
YouTube
Quicktime, Mp3 Audio, HTML Transcript

Instructions: Please watch this video in its entirety (about 1 hour and 10 minutes).

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6.2.4 Government Regulation

Reading: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Jack Lewis’s “Looking Backward: A Historical Perspective on Environmental Regulations”
Link: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Jack Lewis’s “Looking Backward: A Historical Perspective on Environmental Regulations” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire webpage.

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Reading: World Watch Institute’s “Path to Johannesburg”
Link: World Watch Institute’s “Path to Johannesburg” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked webpage.

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Reading: United Nations Environment Programme’s “Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment”
Link: United Nations Environment Programme’s “Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire linked webpage. This is a statement that accompanied the first international summit on the environment, held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. Stockholm was the first attempt at global regulation to protect the environment. Within one hundred years of the Industrial Revolution, the impact of raw material exploitation, burning of fossil fuels, toxic residue from industry, and refinement of minerals had created a potential environmental disaster in industrial societies.

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6.2.5 Conflict and Environmental Impact

Reading: Environmental Literacy Council: John Opie’s Teaching Module: “War and the Environment”
Link: Environmental Literacy Council: John Opie’sTeaching Module: “War and the Environment” (PDF)

Instructions: Please locate the titled module in the frame on the right. Please click on the title to open a PDF document. Please read pp.8–30. War is one political tool to resolve international disagreement. Acceptable reasons for going to war are the subject of much debate, but once the decision to go to war is made, very little else besides winning is in the focus of politicians and generals. So-called rules of war are often disregarded in primal fights for perceived survival. Intentional environmental destruction, the aptly named “scorched earth” policy of some combatants, is often a tool of the desperate. As in all industrial processes, there are unintended but very real environmental consequences to modern, industrial war. The readings in subunit 6.2.5 discuss the impact of specific wars and the general impact of industrial warfare.

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Reading: Lenntech: S.M. Enzler’s “Environmental Effects of War”
Link: Lenntech: S.M. Enzler’s “Environmental Effects of War” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read this entire webpage.

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6.2.6 “Big Technology” and Environmental Change: Dams, Canals, and Rivers

Reading: Center for Columbia River History: Bill Lang’s “Columbia River”
Link: Center for Columbia River History: Bill Lang’s “Columbia River” (HTML)

Instructions: This article by historian and Professor of History at Portland State University, Bill Lang, discusses how human activity has dramatically altered the Columbia River system in the northwestern United States. 400 dams designed for hydroelectric power generation and irrigation purposes have turned the once mighty river and its tributaries into a series of manmade lakes. These dams have had a severe impact on aquatic life in the river basin. For example, the population of Pacific salmon species, which once filled the river during the spring and fall runs, has declined precipitously during the past half-century and may never recover.

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Web Media: YouTube: University of Washington Press: David Biggs’ “Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature In The Mekong Delta”
Link: YouTube: University of Washington Press: David Biggs’ “Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature In The Mekong Delta” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch this entire video (4:39 minutes). In this YouTube video published by the University of Washington Press, author David Biggs explores his book Quagmire: Nation Building in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is the area where the Mekong River breaks into distributaries and empties into the Gulf of Thailand. The subtropical area is largely agricultural and acquacultural and boasts remarkable biodiversity. The Delta, because of a series of wars in Vietnam over the twentieth century and a closed society that reacted to those wars, has not been developed industrially. Biggs discusses the relationship between the long U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the impact of nation building in the 21st century.

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6.2.7 Energy Production and Air and Water Pollution

Web Media: Pace University’s Power Scorecard: “The Environmental Issues of Electricity Production” and “Electricity Generating Technologies: Where Does our Electricity Come From?”
Links: Pace University’s Power Scorecard: “The Environmental Issues of Electricity Production” (HTML) and “Electricity Generating Technologies: Where Does our Electricity Come From?” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on each link under “Air Impacts” and “Water Impacts,” and read the linked entries. Then, click on eachlink on the second webpage about electricity-generating technologies,and read these entries.

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6.2.8 Globalizing Technologies

Reading: National Public Radio: Ofeibea Quist-Arcton’s “Gas Flaring Disrupts Life in Oil-Producing Niger Delta”
Link: National Public Radio: Ofeibea Quist-Arcton’s “Gas Flaring Disrupts Life in Oil-Producing Niger Delta” (HTML and Flash Audio)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage, and click on the “Listen” button to hear the podcast. In terms of petroleum, Nigeria is one of the richest countries, but standards of living are very low. The extraction of petroleum is the primary concern for the mostly American and European oil companies that dominate the industry in Nigeria. However, most of Nigerian oil is found under natural gas deposits. Natural gas is more difficult to extract and returns profits more slowly than oil, so in a poor country, where corruption is rife and populations have virtually no power (and receive little or no economic benefits from oil extraction), instead of harvesting the natural gas first, oil companies simply burn the gas off in massive geysers of fire, which launch massive amounts of greenhouse gasses and particulate matter into the air. Furthermore, people live in villages near these burnoffs and report serious effects from this wanton pollution. Read and listen to the NPR broadcast to discover the conditions for people who had the misfortune to live near a deposit of oil and gas.

Note: You can also download an Mp3 version of the podcast from the link to the right of the “Listen” button.

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6.3 Modern Agriculture

6.3.1 Food and Food Policy

Web Media: iTunes U: Yale University: The Rudd Report’s “A Discussion with Michael Pollan”

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6.3.2 Green Revolutions

Web Media: iTunes U: Yale University: Economics and the Environment: Michael Esty’s “Green to Gold: The Current Environmental Revolutions”
Link: iTunesU: Yale University:Economics and the Environment: Michael Esty’s “Green to Gold: The Current Environmental Revolutions” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 1. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the lecture. Please listen to the entire iTunes lecture (41:24 minutes).

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6.3.3 Genetically Modified Foods

Web Media: : iTunes U: Santa Fe Institute: On Plants: From Genes to Genomes to Genetically Modified Foods: Nina Federof’s “Genetically Modified Foods: Monsters or Miracles?”
Link: iTunesU: Santa Fe Institute:On Plants: From Genes to Genomes to Genetically Modified Foods: Nina Federof’s “Genetically Modified Foods: Monsters or Miracles?” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 3. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire linked lecture (1:33:52 minutes).

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6.3.4 Intensive Versus Extensive Land Use

Reading: Encyclopedia of the Earth: Tobias Plieninger’s “Traditional Land Use and Nature Conservation in Rural Europe”
Link: Encyclopedia of the Earth: Tobias Plieninger’s “Traditional Land Use and Nature Conservation in Rural Europe” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the brief entry. Extensive agriculture is a system in which land is farmed with little labor, fertilizer, or capital expenditure in ratio to the area farmed. Intensive agriculture is the opposite, where smaller land areas require much labor, fertilizer, and capital expenditure. Intensive farming produces large crop yields, because fertilizer keeps the soil nutrient rich. Agribusiness is an intensive agricultural model. Extensive land use is best exemplified by nomadic cultures and horticulturalists. Lower yields are expected in extensive land use,because soils are often depleted and a large area is needed to maintain a small number of people. Subsistence farming is extensive.

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6.3.5 Agriculture in the Developing World

Web Media: The Open University: “World in Transition: Managing Resources”
Link: The Open University: “World in Transition: Managing Resources” (HTML and Abode Flash)

Instructions: Please read the introduction,andthenclick on the links for tracks 2–12 under “Tracks in this Podcast.” On each webpage, also click on the “Read a transcript of this track” hyperlink for accompanying text (approx. 60 minutes).

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6.4 Modern Commerce

6.4.1 World Commodities

Web Media: PBS: The Market Maker: “Inside the Oldest Commodities Exchange”
Link: PBS: The Market Maker: “Inside the Oldest Commodities Exchange” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please click play, and watch the brief video (3:48 minutes).

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6.4.2 Trade Networks

Web Media: iTunes U: Globalization Video, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs: Joseph Stiglitz’ “Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development”
Link: iTunesU: Globalization Video, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs: Joseph Stiglitz’ “Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please scroll to lecture no. 3. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire linked lecture (1:00:55 minutes).

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6.4.3 Commerce in the Developing World

Web Media: iTunes U: Open University: “International Development: Microcredit and Migration”
Link: iTunesU:Open University: “International Development: Microcredit and Migration” (iTunes)

Instructions: Please listen to and watch all 14 episodes (about 85 minutes). Click on “View in iTunes” to download each free episode. Alternatively, you may download and read all 14 transcripts. Please note that each transcript is listed below each lecture.

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6.5 International Politics and the Environment

6.5.1 Russia and the Soviet Union

Web Media: The Open University: “Lake Baikal”
Link: The Open University: “Lake Baikal” (HTML and Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Read the introduction. Then, click on each segment to watch the podcasts on Lake Baikal in order (1–16). On each webpage for each podcast, click on the link to “Read a transcript of this track” for accompanying text (about 1 hour).

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6.5.2 Developing World: Bangladesh

Web Media: iTunes U: The Open University: “Earth in Crisis: Environmental Policy in an International Context”
Link: iTunes U: The Open University: “Earth In Crisis: Environmental Policy in an International Context” (iTunes)

Instructions: Read the introduction, and click on the links for tracks 2–6, and 13–16. Watch each podcast for tracks 2–6 and 13–16, and click on the link to “Read a transcript of this track” on each webpage to read the accompanying transcript (about 20 minutes).

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Unit 7: Threatened Environments-Threatened Societies

At the end of the twentieth century, over one hundred years of unrestrained industrial growth and unlimited consumption of fossil fuels took such a toll on the global environment that failure to notice became no longer possible and no longer politically or economically viable. Overuse of natural resources and non-regulation of market economies had pushed many species to extinction, had made many environments unlivable, and impacted human societies. Large industry impacted large ecosystems, and despite their technology, humans are still a part of ecosystems. Ecosystem threats will eventually become social threats. Ultimately, large scale manufacture has had a profound effect of the global environment, including climate change. This unit will explore how a global economy has had a global environmental impact.

Unit 7 Time Advisory show close

Unit 7 Learning Outcomes show close

7.1 Endangered Ecosystems

7.1.1 Water Diversion

Web Media: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): “Water and Political Conflicts”
Link: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): “Water and Political Conflicts” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on each of the 5 sections, examine the graphic, and read the entire text for each: “The disappearance of the Aral Sea”; “Lake Chad: Almost Gone”; “The Mekong River - Survival for Millions”; “Water - Cooperation or Conflict?”; and “Transboundary Water Governance - Averting Conflict.” Water use is poised to be one of the most contentious political issues. Minority rights and demands of the wealthy in the Americas and the Pacific Basin, conflicting interests of newly created nations in semi-arid Central Asia, population pressures leading to active desalinization in the desert Middle East, and world-wide pollution of freshwater have made protecting water sources a global issue. The UNEP link provides a short overview to some of the biggest environmental issues created by water diversion, the most dramatic of which is the disappearing Aral Sea. The Salton Seain California lies at the other extreme as a result of a century of large-scale water diversion.

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Web Media: YouTube: LiveEarthDotOrg’s “The Aral Sea”
Link: YouTube: LiveEarthDotOrg’s “The Aral Sea” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch the linked YouTube video (10:29 minutes).

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Reading: National Geographic: Joel K. Bourne, Jr.’s “Salton Sea”
Link: National Geographic Magazine: Joel K. Bourne, Jr.’s “Salton Sea” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay.

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7.1.2 Over Fishing and Ocean Health

Reading: University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography: “Ecological Consequences of Overfishing”
Link: University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography: “Ecological Consequences of Overfishing” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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7.1.3 Timber Harvesting and Forest Health

Reading: Idaho Forest Products Commission: R. Neil Sampson and Lester A. DeCoster’s “Forest Health in the United States”
Link: Idaho Forest Products Commission: R. Neil Sampson and Lester A. DeCoster’s “Forest Health in the United States” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article (8 pages total). You will have to click on the “Next Page” hyperlink to access each subsequent webpage. Please click on embedded links on page 2 to read about “Forest Types” and “Broad Trends Affecting Forest Health.” This article presents an intense debate over the role of timber harvesting, especially on publicly-held land, and forest health.

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7.1.4 Industrial Chemicals and the Environment

Reading: United Nations Environmental Program Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific: “South Asia State of the Environment Report, 2001, Part II-3, Industrial Pollution”
Link: United Nations Environmental Program Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific: “South Asia State of the Environment Report, 2001, Part II-3, Industrial Pollution” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on “Part II-3. Industrial Pollution” to open the PDF file. Please read the entire report (16 pages).

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Reading: International Panel of Chemical Pollution: United Nations’ “Safe Planet Campaign

The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could be used here, please submit it here.
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Web Media: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Superfund: Cleaning up the Nation's Hazardous Wastes Sites”
Link: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Superfund: Cleaning up the Nation's Hazardous Wastes Sites” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on “Basic Information” and “Contaminated Media, Human Health, and Environmental Effects,” and read the entire linked webpages. Pollution has always been a result of technology, but before industrialization and population explosion, global impact was limited. Storing hazardous waste—the deadly chemical or radioactive byproduct of complex chemical processes used in manufacturing, healthcare, mining, and energy production—hasbecome an increasingly fractious issue, largely due to illegal dumping of waste in rivers, the oceans, and landfills near human habitation. This waste dumping has usually been at the expense of politically powerless populations like the poor and minorities. Finding a safe place to store this waste and eventual need for site maintenance or cleanup is a worldwide problem.

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7.1.5 Invasive Species

Reading: U.S. Department of Agriculture: Michael Livingston and Craig Osteen’s “Integrating Invasive Species Prevention and Control Policies”
Link: U.S. Department of Agriculture: Michael Livingston and Craig Osteen’s “Integrating Invasive Species Prevention and Control Policies” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on “Entire Report” to open thePDF document. Please read the entire report (8 pages). Ecosystems evolve in an intricately balanced closed system. Global trade and travel can introduce species not native to an ecosystem. With no natural predators or other population control, introduced species can take over an ecosystem, consuming all food and displacing other species.

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Reading: Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters: Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)
Link: Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters: Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) (HTML)

Instructions: Please read theentire webpage. The governments of the U.S. and Canada have been combatting an invasion of the Zebra Mussel in the Great Lakes.

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Reading: Max Shores: “The Amazing Story of Kudzu”
Link: Max Shores: “The Amazing Story of Kudzu” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked article. Please note that you do not need to purchase the documentary. Kudzu, an Asian vine, was intentionally introduced into the U.S. in the late 19^th century for its ornamental properties and its usefulness in averting soil erosion. Kudzu thrives in the humid heat of the U.S. South, where there are no natural limits to its ability to thrive. Over 100 years of unrestricted growth of the planthas reshaped the southern landscape.

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Web Media: U.S. Department of Agriculture: “Kudzu”
Link: U.S. Department of Agriculture: “Kudzu” (Adobe Flash)

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Instructions: Please watch the brief embedded video, and read the descriptions of Kudzu.

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7.1.6 Mining and Mineral Production

Reading: WesJones.com: Erik Reece’s “Death of a Mountain: Radical Stripmining and the Leveling of Appalachia”
Link: WesJones.com: Erik Reece’s “Death of a Mountain: Radical Strip Mining and the Leveling of Appalachia” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage. Most electricity on earth is generated by either nuclear fission or burning coal. Coal is extracted either through underground tunnels or through strip mining, where entire mountainsare topped to access the coal seams underneath.

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Reading: Northern Arizona University: Marylynn Quartaroli’s “Leetso, the Yellow Monster: Uranium Mining on the Colorado Plateau”
Link: Northern Arizona University: Marylynn Quartaroli’s “Leetso, the Yellow Monster: Uranium Mining on the Colorado Plateau” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage. Nuclear fission, be it in bombs or for power, presents issues of safety and waste disposal, but uranium mining has also had itsimpact, especially on Navajo populations in the American Southwest.

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Web Media: Environmental Graffiti: Karl Fabricius’ “10 Most Incredible Earth Scars”
Link: Environmental Graffiti: Karl Fabricius’ “10 Most Incredible Earth Scars” (HTML)

Instructions: Please navigate the slide show byusing the green buttons next to the title. A worldwide demand for diamonds as the gemstone of choice has created a uniquely destructive form of mining, the “pipe” mine, where a vertical pipe of diamond matrix is followed into the ground, creating enormous holes in the earth.

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7.2 Population and the Environment

7.2.1 The “Population Bomb”

Reading: Environmental Health News: Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich’s “Return of the Population Bomb,” July 14, 2009
Link: Environmental Health News: Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich’s “Return of the Population Bomb” (HTML) July 14, 2009

Instructions: Please read this entire article. This article by biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich evaluates the social impact of Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book The Population Bomb. In the 1968 work, Ehrlich argues that unchecked world population growth would lead to epidemic starvation by the 1970s. Paul and Anne Ehrlich argue in their 2009 article that the original book may have overstated the impact that population growth would have on world food resources, but that population growth still threatens the health of the environment due to pollution, greenhouse gas production, and other problems. The authors argue that concerted action must be taken to limit population growth and encourage environmental sustainability.

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7.2.2 Human Settlement Patterns

Reading: National Geographic Society Xpeditions: “Geography Standards: Human Systems”
Link: National Geographic Society Xpeditions: “Geography Standards: Human Systems” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire “Human Systems” section of Geography Standards, sections 9 through 13. You may navigate to each page by using the numbered bar at the top of the webpage.

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7.2.3 Population, Overpopulation, and Resource Scarcity

Reading: American Association for the Advancement of Science: Atlas of Population and Environment: “Part 1: Overview,” “Part 2: Atlas,” and “Part 3: Case Studies”
Link: American Association for the Advancement of Science: Atlas of Population and Environment: “Part 1: Overview,” “Part 2: Atlas,”and “Part 3: Case Studies” (HTML or PDF)

Note: All the resources above are in HTML format, but can also be viewed as PDF’s by clicking the “Download article as PDF” link at the bottom of each page.

Instructions: For each part, please read each section by clicking on each hyperlink below each part in the table of contents on the left side of the webpage. Alternatively, you may navigate by using the arrow buttons at the bottom of each page. Population density and population distribution are two elements of land use and human health. Urbanization grew enormously worldwide in the twentieth century, increasing population density that cause dramatic shifts in land use. Migrations of populations are based in both push and pull factors. When people choose to migrate from one place or another, usually a combination of factors is pushing them from their homes—anything from war to natural disaster to unemployment—and pulling them to a new place—refuge, services, and jobs. The Atlas of Population and Environment gives a geographical view of population density and its environmental impact.

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Web Media: iTunes U: University of California, San Francisco (UCTV): Lisa M. Thompson’s “Living with Smoke: Global Health Impact of Air Pollution from Household Cooking Fires”
Link: iTunesU: University of California, San Francisco (UCTV): Lisa M. Thompson’s “Living with Smoke: Global Health Impact of Air Pollution from Household Cooking Fires” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 60. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (1:26:37 minutes). Lisa Thompson, an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, discusses the surprising health impact of population density in countries where many people do not have access to gas or electric stoves and must rely on open cooking fires in very tight quarters.

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7.3 Ecological Change and Human Society

7.3.1 Evolutionary Medicine

Web Media: iTunes U: Arizona State University: “Medical Ecological Approaches”
Link: iTunes U: Arizona State University: “Medical Ecological Approaches” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 13. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (1:14:58 minutes).

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7.3.2 Pollution and Disease

Reading: Encyclopedia of Public Health: Warren Winkelstein, Jr.’s “History of Public Health”
Link: Encyclopedia of Public Health: Warren Winkelstein, Jr.’s “History of Public Health” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked entry.

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Reading: Cornell University’s Chronicle Online: Susan Lang’s “Water, Air, and Soil Pollution Causes 40 Percent of Deaths Worldwide, Cornell Research Survey Finds”
Link: Cornell University’s Chronicle Online: Susan Lang’s “Water, Air, and Soil Pollution Causes 40 Percent of Deaths Worldwide, Cornell Research Survey Finds” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked article in its entirety.

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Reading: EduGreen: “Health Impacts of Water Pollution”
Link: EduGreen: “Health Impacts of Water Pollution” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read linked article.

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7.3.2.1 Environmental Degradation

Web Media: iTunes U: Stanford University: “Environmental Degradation Begets Epidemics: Cholera in Bangladesh (Video)”
Link: iTunes U: Stanford University: “Environmental Degradation Begets Epidemics: Cholera in Bangladesh (Video)” (iTunes U)

Also available in:
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Instructions: Please scroll to no. 33. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (39:23minutes).

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7.3.2.2 Industrial Pollution

Reading: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Eckardt C. Beck’s “The Love Canal Tragedy”
Link: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Eckardt C. Beck’s “The Love Canal Tragedy” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked essay. Poor regulation of dumping of industrial chemicals in the years before the founding of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and passing of environmental regulatory legislation led to horrors like those that befell innocent homeowners in an upstate New York subdivision. In the 1970s, an explosion exposed the fact that their development had been built on a landfill where industrial waste had been dumped in the 1950s. The New York Times reported, “Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal here as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have been percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal.” 221 families, many of whom are plagued with cancer and birth defects, had to be relocated.

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7.3.3 Climate Change

Reading: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Climate Change – Health and Environment Effects”
Link: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Climate Change – Health and Environment Effects” (HTML)

Instructions: Please click on each of the links in the left frame and read each linked entry.

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7.3.4 Unintended Consequences of Technologies

Reading: Santa Clara University: Tim Healy’s “The Unanticipated Consequences of Technology”
Link: Santa Clara University: Tim Healy’s “The Unanticipated Consequences of Technology” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the linked essay in its entirety.

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Unit 8: Environmentalism: New Perspectives on Mankind's Relationship With the Natural World

Scientific awareness coupled with intense environmental degradation inspired a backlash against total resource consumption and environmental waste. Beginning with the industrial revolutions, the modern environmental movement has grown to offer sustainability as an alternate paradigm for unrestricted resource consumption and waste generation. Nations that experienced industrialization from the 18th to 20th centuries are now considered to be post-industrial. Concern for protecting the environment is a feature of having moved into more knowledge-based economies. Yet, consumption has not lessened, so manufacturing continues in nations currently in the midst of their own industrialization. Although the paradigm shift has been dramatic, challenges remain. This unit will explore the origins and outlines of modern environmentalism and will explore some key issues for the 21st century.

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Unit 8 Learning Outcomes show close

8.1 Conservation and Preservation

8.1.1 Origins of Conservation and Preservation Movements

Web Media: The Graduate Council Lectures, University of California, Berkeley (UCTV): Carolyn Merchant’s “Environmentalism: From the Control of Nature to Partnership (YouTube))”
Link: iTunes U: The Graduate Council Lectures, University of California, Berkeley (UCTV): Carolyn Merchant’s “Environmentalism: From Control of Nature to Partnership (Video)”

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Instructions: : Please watch the entire video lecture (58:45 minutes).

Terms of Use: This video is licensed by the copyright holder, UCTV, as CC-BY-NC-ND - Creative Commons (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works). For more information about this license, please read: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.
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8.1.1.1 Preservation Movement in America

Reading: Library of Congress: “Evolution of the Conservation Movement in America, 1850–1920”
Link: Library of Congress “Evolution of the Conservation Movement in America, 1850–1920” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the overview, and then click on each of the following subheads: “History,” “Critical Thinking,” “Arts & Humanities,” and follow any links in each new section. Read each entire entry. Under “Critical Thinking,” make sure to click on the links for and read the sections titled “Chronological Thinking,” “Historical Comprehension,” “Historical Analysis and Interpretation,” “Historical Research,” and “Historical Issues Analysis.” Under “Arts & Humanities,” make sure to click on the links for and read the sections titled “Descriptive Writing,” “Persuasive Argument,” and “Journal Writing.”

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8.1.1.2 National Parks

Web Media: PBS: Ken Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”
Link: PBS: Ken Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please click on each video in the “Video Clips from the Series” section (25 videos total). To scroll, use the arrows on the right and left (approximately 75 minutes).

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8.1.2 Goals

Reading: Montanans for Multiple Use: Jeremiah Hall’s “History of the Environmental Movement”
Link: Montanans for Multiple Use: Jeremiah Hall’s “History of the Environmental Movement” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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8.1.3 Social and Environmental Consequences: Conservation of Habitat and Fire Hazard

Reading: PBS: Steven J. Pyne’s “How Plants Use Fire (and Are Used By It)”
Link: PBS: Steven J. Pyne’s “How Plants Use Fire (and Are Used By It)” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire article.

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Web Media: National Geographic: Alex Chadwick’s “Radio Expeditions, Yellowstone Fires”
Link: National Geographic: Alex Chadwick’s “Radio Expeditions, Yellowstone Fires” (HTMLand RealPlayer)

Instructions: Listen to both parts of the radio broadcastby clicking on “Part 1” and “Part 2.” Click on “The Story Behind the Story,” and read the “Post-Expedition Interview” conducted by Michael Heasley.

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Reading: About.com: Gail O’Neill: “Fire: A Burning Issue”
Link: About.com: Gail O’Neill: “Fire: A Burning Issue” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read linked article. The Yellowstone Park fire of 1988 changed a lot of minds about whether human interference in conserving wild lands should include fire suppression. The presence of human habitation determines when foresters allow fires to burn and when they fight them. In the last 100 years, conservationists are seeing the results of their policies, and whether conservation policies have done more harm than good is not clear.

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Reading: Pushback.com: Dr. Bill Wattenburg’s “Re-examine ‘Let It Burn’”
Link: Pushback.com: Dr. Bill Wattenburg’s “Re-examine ‘Let It Burn’” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read linked article. Dr. Bill Wattenburg’s response to the idea of letting forest fires burn is highly opinionated with a strong ideological bias, but it does indicate the depth of the controversy and the strong feelings engendered by official fire policies.

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8.2 Modern Environmental Movement

8.2.1 Origins in the U.S.

Reading: National Humanities Center: Max Oelschlaeger’s “The Roots of Preservation: Emerson, Thoreau, and the Hudson River School”
Link: National Humanities Center: Max Oelschlaeger’s “The Roots of Preservation: Emerson, Thoreau, and the Hudson River School” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the essay in its entirety.

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8.2.1.1 The Soil Conservation Movement

Reading: U.S. Department of Agriculture: Douglas Helms’ “Conserving the Plains: the Soil Conservation Service in the Great Plains”
Link: U.S. Department of Agriculture:Douglas Helms’ “Conserving the Plains: the Soil Conservation Service in the Great Plains” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire essay. In this reprint from the journal Agricultural History, Douglas Helms discusses the idea of federal action to conserve topsoil and prevent soil erosion. Although most date the modern environmental movement to Rachel Carson’s 1962 Silent Spring (discussed in subunit 8.2.2), educating farmers in sustainable farming techniques was an early step in changing how people thought about stewardship of the land.

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Web Media: YouTube: PublicResourceOrg’s Post of Pare Lorentz’ The Plow That Broke the Plains
Link: YouTube: PublicResourceOrg’s Post of Pare Lorentz’ The Plow That Broke the Plains (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch the video in its entirety (25:24). The Plow That Broke the Plains was a groundbreaking documentary produced by the Department of Agriculture in 1937, written and directed by Pare Lorentz, and featuring art direction by photographer Paul Strand. The film sought to explain how unsustainable farming techniques had depleted topsoil in the U.S. Midwest and created the conditions for both flood and drought in the region.

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8.2.2 Science, Advocacy, and Public Policy

Reading: University of Indiana: Professor Randall Baker’s “Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the Beginning of the Environmental Movement in the United States”
Link: University of Indiana: Professor Randall Baker’s “Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the Beginning of the Environmental Movement in the United States” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage. In this essay, author Randall Baker discusses the social and political impact of environmentalist Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring. Carson had warned that indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides for farming and other purposes would endanger entire ecosystems and threaten human health. Baker notes that the American chemical industry strongly objected to Carson’s arguments, but grassroots efforts by concerned citizens as a result of her book’s publication eventually led to national regulation of pesticides and other hazardous chemicals by the early 1970s.

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8.2.3 Impact on Global Society

Reading: iTunes U: Stanford University: Global Climate and Energy Project: Thomas Friedman’s “New Thoughts on a Hot, Flat, and Crowded World”
Link: iTunesU: Stanford University: Global Climate and Energy Project: Thomas Friedman’s “New Thoughts on a Hot, Flat, and Crowded World” (iTunes U)

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Instructions: Please scroll to no. 13. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (1:20:15 minutes).

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8.3 Regulation and Resistance

8.3.1 National and International Regulatory Efforts

Web Media: NPR’s Morning Edition: Rob Gifford, Lawrence Sheets, and Sylvia Poggioli’s “Kyoto Accords Take Effect”
Link: NPR’s Morning Edition: Rob Gifford, Lawrence Sheets, and Sylvia Poggioli’s “Kyoto Accords Take Effect” (Adobe Flash)

Instructions: Please click on the play button to listen to the clip of the radio program (4:38 minutes).

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Web Media: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s CIA Factbook: “Appendix C: Selected International Environmental Agreements”
Link: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s CIA Factbook: “Appendix C: Selected International Environmental Agreements” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage, noting especially the subject of each agreement and which countries have signed and or ratified each agreement.

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8.3.2 Successes and Failures

Reading: Greenspirit: Dr. Patrick Moore’s “Mining and the Environment”
Link: Greenspirit: Dr. Patrick Moore’s “Mining and the Environment” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the entire webpage. Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace who has recently been named an enemy of the environment, writes about pragmatic solutions to environmental challenges and exposes the fallacies behind environmental extremism.

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Web Media: Discover Magazine: Rachel Cernansky’s “9 of Humanity’s Greatest Environmental Successes” and “Man’s Greatest Crimes against the Earth, in Pictures”
Link: Discover Magazine: Rachel Cernansky’s “9 of Humanity’s Greatest Environmental Successes” (HTML) and “Man’s Greatest Crimes against the Earth, in Pictures” (HTML)

Instructions: Please view each slide on both webpages, and read the accompanying text. Click on the white arrows to advance or repeat the slides. Please also click on any embedded hyperlinks to learn more about each issue.

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8.3.3 The Politics of Environmental Change

Web Media: iTunes U: La Trobe University: Clive Hamilton and Andrew Glikson’s “The Politics and Science of Climate Change Denialism”
Link: iTunesU: La Trobe University: Clive Hamilton and Andrew Glikson’s “The Politics and Science of Climate Change Denialism” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 1. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (1:32:16 minutes).

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8.3.4 Religion

Reading: Yale University: “Forum on Religion and Ecology.”
Link: Yale University: “Forum on Religion and Ecology” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the “Overview of World Religions and Ecology” introduction, and then click on each hyperlink at the left to read about each world religion (10 total). The authors in this Yale Forum of Religion and Ecology put forth the position each religious tradition currently holds on ecological health and human interaction.

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8.4 Current Trends

8.4.1 Rethinking the Relationship Between Humans and the Environment

Web Media: YouTube: University of Washington Press: James Feldman’s “A Storied Wilderness: Rewilding the Apostle Islands”
Link: YouTube: University of Washington Press: James Feldman’s “A Storied Wilderness: Rewilding The Apostle Islands” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please watch this video in its entirety (about 9 minutes). The modern environmental sensibility has encouraged many projects intended to correct past degradation or prevent impact in the future. Humans are part of their ecosystems. The imprint left by humans cannot be avoided, and sometimes it cannot be erased.

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Reading: Bloomberg: Joshua Goodman’s “North Face Founder Saves, Fights Nature as Chile Volcano Erupts”
Link: Bloomberg:Joshua Goodman’s “North Face Founder Saves, Fights Nature as Chile Volcano Erupts” (HTML)

Instructions: Please read the above linked article.

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8.4.2 Commerce and the Environment: Cap and Trade

Reading: Pew Center on Global Climate Change: “Climate 101 Series: Cap and Trade”
Link: Pew Center on Global Climate Change: “Climate 101 Series: Cap and Trade” (PDF)

Instructions: Please click on the title to download a PDF document. Please read the essay in its entirety (12 pages).

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Web Media: YouTube: Ohio University: Ohioweb’s “Carbon Offsets”
Link: YouTube: Ohio University: Ohioweb’s “Carbon Offsets” (YouTube)

Instructions: Please view the brief 4-minute video. Trading in carbon offsets has become a growth industry for investors. Essentially, industries and even individual companies can buy the right to pollute. Carbon offsets were suggested in the 1980s as a way to lower the overall emission of greenhouse gases. A company that is successful in limiting its own greenhouse gases can raise capital by trading with a company that has not been able to lower its emissions. Even though one company is polluting too much, the fact that another company is not polluting very much can, if levels are maintained, reduce overall carbon emissions. The idea is controversial; some environmentalists say no one should be able to buy the right to pollute and that all industries should lower their emissions.

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8.4.3 Science and the Search for Solutions

Web Media: iTunes U: Perspectives on Ocean Science: University of California, San Diego (UCTV): Charles Kennel’s “Science Solutions for a Planet in Peril: Global Earth Science and Sustainability”
Link: iTunes U: Perspectives on Ocean Science: University of California, San Diego (UCTV): Charles Kennel’s “Science Solutions for a Planet in Peril: Global Earth Science and Sustainability” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 17. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (58:52 minutes).

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8.4.4 Thinking Globally/Acting Locally

Web Media: iTunes U: UCTV, University of California, Santa Barbara: Bill McKibbons’s “Beyond Understanding the Problem: Citizen Action for Global Warming Solutions”
Link: UCTV, University of California, Santa Barbara: Bill McKibbons’s “Beyond Understanding the Problem: Citizen Action for Global Warming Solutions” (iTunes U)

Instructions: Please scroll to no. 51. Click on “View in iTunes” to download the video lecture. Please watch the entire video lecture (1:29:45 minutes).

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Final Exam

Final Exam: The Saylor Foundation's HIST364 Final Exam
Link: The Saylor Foundation's HIST364 Final Exam

Instructions: You must be logged into your Saylor Foundation School account in order to access this exam. If you do not yet have an account, you will be able to create one, free of charge, after clicking the link.
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