HISTORY 424:

AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

University of Idaho

Spring 2009

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

TLC030

Professor Adam M. Sowards

Office: Administration 319 (mailbox in Admin. 315)

Phone: 885-0529 (no voicemail)

E-Mail: asowards@uidaho.edu (preferred contact)

Web: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/asowards/

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 9:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m., Wednesdays, 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m, and by appointment

Please Note: It is my pleasure to do what I can to help you meet your goals in this class. If you find yourself having trouble, please send me e-mail, use my office hours, or set up an appointment to see me.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will examine Americans’ interactions with the natural environment using the analytical lens of history. It will also investigate history using the analytical lens of the natural environment. It will focus on how nature shapes what humans do and how nature is shaped by what humans do, concentrating on the last 250 years. In addition, the course will explore Americans’ ideas and attitudes toward the natural world and the political struggles related to the environment.

ASSIGNED BOOKS

The following list constitutes the required books for this course. They are available for purchase at the University of Idaho Bookstore. It is possible, even likely, that you could find some of the books cheaper through online or local booksellers.

·         Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History, second ed.

·         Louis S. Warren, ed., American Environmental History

·         Virginia DeJohn Anderson, Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America

·         Nancy Langston, Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares: The Paradox of Old Growth in the Inland West

·         Dan O’Neill, The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement

·         Joseph M. Williams, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, second edition (highly recommended short text on writing)

Please Note: I recognize that the reading load for this course is somewhat different from what many students are accustomed to, especially those not in the humanities. Please recognize that you will not be held responsible for every detail on each page of all assignments. Strategies for more efficient and effective reading can be found here: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/asowards/reading_hints.htm. With dedicated practice, employing these strategies will save you time and even may increase your comprehension.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Participation (10%): Just as you don’t get paid for your job simply by showing up, you don’t get credit by just being in the classroom. I expect you to come to class ready to work. That means you will have read the assignment carefully and critically and will be prepared to offer your thoughts, ideas, and questions about the reading. Because my experience has taught me that many students will not do that without inducement, a portion of your grade will be determined by your preparedness. This will be judged in several ways, including:

Participation will be evaluated by contributions to discussions, attendance, and in-class assignments, through general observations. We have all been in classes where someone speaks almost constantly, seemingly just to hear her or his own voice. Talking a lot is not necessarily a surefire way to get high grades here (although never speaking is not a positive alternative either). Good participation requires thoughtful listening, intelligent questioning, and careful responses.

Other work done in class may be collected. Such work may be individual or collaborative assignments and is likely not to be given a letter grade but a meets / fails to meet / exceeds expectation grade.

Quizzes may be used to test student comprehension of reading material, lectures, films, and discussions. They are likely to be unannounced. If you miss a quiz, you will not have the opportunity to make it up unless you made prior arrangements with me. If we have at least five quizzes, I will drop the lowest score; if we have at least eight, I will drop the lowest two.

Focus Questions (15%): For nearly every class, I have written a question or set of questions to focus your reading and our subsequent class discussion. I will divide the class and assign roughly half the class for each day to turn in an answer. The answer should be only a one-page, typed paper, which will be graded as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory (or zero if you do not turn it in). After you have turned in ten satisfactory answers, you can stop.

Midterm Exam (20%): You will have an in-class midterm essay exam that will cover the first portion of the course. Please bring a blue book (or two).

Research Paper (with Service-Learning potential) (30%, with 35% potential): One of the most valuable things advanced undergraduates can do in a history class is an independent research project based in primary sources. It allows students to practice being historians and gives you a chance to study, in-depth, a topic of your own choosing. For this assignment, students will conduct a research project in U.S. environmental history based chiefly in primary sources (i.e., those documents produced at the time and by participants or observers). Topics must be approved by me. Your final paper will be approximately eight to ten pages and consult at least five primary sources and three scholarly sources. Your main interpretations must be drawn from the primary sources.

            The Director of the UI Sustainability Center (UISC) contacted me about an interesting potential research and service project. There is interest in creating a Restore the Native Species project on campus. It would require research into what the UI (and neighboring community) looked like before large-scale agricultural and urban development. It would involve finding and understanding old photographs, surveys, diaries, and other terrific local sources. Doing this research project would likely be done with teamwork, and it would require coordination with the UISC. Because of the greater complexity of conducting this sort of team-oriented projects, students who do this project will have their Research Project count for 35 percent (i.e., they have a potential extra five percentage points). Please inform me as soon as possible if you are interested in doing this for your research.

Final Exam (25%): You will take an in-class final essay exam that will primarily cover the second portion of the class. There will be a small portion of the final that is cumulative. Please bring a blue book (or two).

CLASS THEMES AND READING SCHEDULE

This is my best approximation of our reading schedule. Inevitably, something unanticipated will arise and force adjustments to the schedule. I will inform students when such changes occur and make changes to the schedule.

Introduction to History 424

Thursday, January 15

Read: Syllabus

Introduction to the Field

Tuesday, January 20

Read: Steinberg, ix-xii, 3-7; Warren, 1-3; William Cronon, “The Uses of Environmental History,” Environmental History Review 17 (Autumn 1993): 1-22.

Indigenous Environmental History

Thursday, January 22

Read: Steinberg, 11-21; Warren, 4-48

Focus Question: What was the nature and extent of indigenous environmental impacts? (everyone)

Points of Contact

Tuesday, January 27

Read: Steinberg, 22-39; Warren, 49-72

Focus Question: What were the ecological and social impacts of Europeans’ contact with North America? (last names A-M)

Contrasting Ideas about Animals (and Nature)

Thursday, January 29

Read: Anderson, 1-71

Focus Question: What is the importance of how indigenous peoples and Europeans thought about animals? (last names N-Z)

Contact Economy and Landscape: Animals

Tuesday, February 3

Read: Anderson, 75-171

Focus Question: What role did animals play in colonizing North America with Europeans? (birthdays January-June)

Ecological and Cultural Conflict

Thursday, February 5

Read: Anderson, 175-246

Focus Question: What role did animals play in colonizing North America with Europeans? (birthdays July-December)

Contact Economy and Landscape: Commodities

Tuesday, February 10

Read: Steinberg, 57-71 (note: this skips ahead a chapter); Warren, 73-100

Focus Question: How did commodification influence the contact landscape and economy of North America? (women)

Stories about Nature

Thursday, February 12

Read: Steinberg, 40-54 (note: this skips back a chapter); Warren, 101-24

Focus Question: How did Americans understand their migration west and its environmental impact? (men)

The American South

Tuesday, February 17

Read: Steinberg, 72-115; Warren, 125-40

Focus Question: What role did nature play in shaping the economic and social development (and conflict) of the American South? (first names A-M)

Early Urban America

Thursday, February 19

Read: Steinberg, 155-69 (note: this skips ahead a couple chapters); Warren, 141-59

Focus Question: In what ways was urban America different from and similar to rural America in the nineteenth century? (first names N-Z)

Western Landscapes, Peoples, and Animals

Tuesday, February 24

Read: Steinberg, 116-35; Warren, 160-79

Focus Question: How does the West’s environmental history compare and contrast with the North’s and South’s? (no one; study for exam instead)

Western Forests and Environmental Change

Tuesday, March 3

Read: Langston, vii-ix, 3-85

Focus Question: How did various groups understand and use nature in the Blue Mountains, and what was the ecological impact? (home zip code ends in odd number)

Conservation: An Application

Thursday, March 5

Read: Langston, 86-156

Focus Question: Why did federal conservationists act as they did in the Blues? (home zip code ends in an even number)

The Greatest Good

Tuesday, March 10

Read: NA—catch up or get ahead

Due:

The Greatest Good, con’t

Thursday, March 12

Read: NA—catch up or get ahead

Due: Notes

SPRING BREAK, March 16-20; No Classes

University Interdisciplinary Colloquium

Tuesday, March 24: Class Meets at Commons Whitewater CREST Room for the University Interdisciplinary Colloquium where Professor Sowards is presenting on “Narrating Nature: Telling Stories about the Columbia River”

Conservation: A Critique—and-- Wilderness and Its Discontents

Thursday, March 26

Read: Steinberg, 136-54; Warren, 180-212-43

Focus Question: What were the shortcomings of conservation? (phone number ends in even number)

What is the “trouble with wilderness” and why is it troubled? (phone number ends in odd number)

Managing Trees, Animals, and Fires—and—Restoring Complexity

Tuesday, March 31

Read: Langston, 157-306

Focus Question: How did nature shape management priorities, and how did management shape nature? (last name ends with A-M)

What is the role of history and complexity in modern resource management? (last name ends with N-Z)

Food, Nature, and Nation

Thursday, April 1

Read: Steinberg, 173-202

Focus Question: How did consumption patterns change and affect the environment? (first names end with A-M)

Making the Nation Modern

Tuesday, April 7

Read: Steinberg, 203-224; O’Neill, 1-81

Focus Question: How did Americans write their post-World War II ambitions on the landscape? (first names end with N-Z)

Challenging Science and Government

Thursday, April 9

Read: O’Neill, 82-162

Focus Question: What was the role of science/scientists in its/their relationship to broader society as it pertained to the environment? (everyone)

Modern Problems and Recognizing Them

Tuesday, April 14: Tentative Class visit with Nancy Langston

Read: Nancy Langston, “The Retreat from Precaution: Regulating Diethylstilbestrol (DES), Endocrine Disruptors, and Environmental Health,” Environmental History 13 (January 2008): 41-65; Steinberg, 225-39; Warren, 244-70

Focus Question: What were the impacts of the rising level of toxics in American society? (everyone)

Thursday, April 16

Read: NO CLASS Prof. Sowards at PNW History Conference, in Portland, OR (get a head start reading for next week)

Stopping “Progress”

Tuesday, April 21

Read: O’Neill, 163-323

Focus Question: Why were the opponents of Project Chariot successful? (hometown in southern Idaho)

Environmentalism in the Mainstream

Thursday, April 23

Read: Steinberg, 240-68; Warren, 271-97

Focus Question: How and why did environmental protection entered the mainstream of American society and politics? (hometown not in southern Idaho)

Environmental Racism and Justice

Tuesday, April 28

Read: Warren, 298-335

Focus Question: How have social and political conflicts manifested themselves in/as environmental conflicts and vice versa? (anyone who still needs to turn one in)

The Global Environment

Thursday, April 30

Read: Steinberg, 269-95; Warren, 336-46

Focus Question: What is the impact of the United States’ environmental actions on the globe? (anyone who still needs to turn one in)

WEEK SIXTEEN:

Tuesday, May 5

Read: No Classes: Research and Individual Meetings or Make up for missed / canceled classes

Thursday, May 7

Read: No Classes: Research and Individual Meetings or Make up for missed / canceled classes

POLICIES

Communications Policy: Because of various professional obligations, I routinely send and receive more than one hundred e-mails a day. Not surprisingly, this can become burdensome and highly time-consuming. So, please, before you call or e-mail me (or any professor) with a question about the course, ask yourself this important question:  Is there ANY other way to gain this information or answer this question without asking a professor?  If so, use that other method! If you e-mail a question that can be answered from reading the syllabus or an assignment or some other handout, I will not answer your message. That being said: Students are welcome to e-mail (or call my office phone) to make an appointment to see me, or to attend to course-related matters where answers are not available. Indeed, I very much enjoy consulting with students and helping them work toward improvement in classes.

Late Work Policy: Your grade drops one full grade for each day your work is late. Furthermore, you must be in class the day it is due to turn in work. If you do not come to class, your work will be counted as one day late unless you have made prior arrangements. With legitimate, documented excuses or for absences arranged ahead of time, exceptions can be made.

Grade Challenges: I am willing to entertain grade challenges provided they are submitted in writing and that you wait 48 hours after the assignment is returned before you hand in your objection. You will then need to set up an appointment with me to discuss the assignment and grade. Also, you must initiate this process within one week of the time the assignment was returned to the class. After re-evaluating a grade and meeting with you to discuss the assignment and evaluation, I may change it.

Plagiarism: To plagiarize is to present someone else’s work as your own. To present someone else’s work as your own means to use someone else’s information, ideas or writing without explicitly acknowledging with quotation marks and/or citations that the ideas and/or writing are not your own. You may be plagiarizing even if you are not directly quoting. Plagiarism is a serious offense and I will give a 0 to the first assignment in which a student plagiarizes. If a student plagiarizes again, I will fail that student in the course. Further actions may be warranted, including reporting the offense to the Dean of Students. If you have ANY questions or confusions about plagiarism, please let me know before you turn in your work. It is essential to be using others’ ideas and information; however, you just must provide credit where credit is due. You may find additional information about Academic Honesty (and dishonesty) as part of the Student Code of Conduct: (http://www.students.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=56182).

Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Please notify me during the first week of class of an accommodation(s) needed for the course. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Support Services located in the Idaho Commons Building, Rm. 333, 885-7200, or dss@uidaho.edu.

EXPECTATIONS

Students will:

The instructor will:

COURSE OBJECTIVES / LEARNING OUTCOMES

The University of Idaho has adopted the following undergraduate learning outcomes:

·         Learn and Integrate: Through independent learning and collaborative study, attain, use and develop knowledge in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences, with disciplinary specialization and the ability to integrate information across disciplines.

·         Think and Create: Use multiple thinking strategies to examine real-world issues, explore creative avenues of expression, solve problems and make consequential decisions.

·         Communicate: Acquire, articulate, create and convey intended meaning using verbal and non-verbal methods of communication that demonstrate respect and understanding in a complex society.

·         Clarify Purpose and Perspective: Explore one's life purpose and meaning through transformational experiences that foster an understanding of self, relationships and diverse global perspectives.

·         Practice Citizenship: Apply principles of ethical leadership, collaborative engagement, socially responsible behavior, respect for diversity in an interdependent world and a service-oriented commitment to advance and sustain local and global communities.

The Department of History has adopted the following undergraduate learning outcomes:

·         Develop broad familiarity with historical arguments and methodology. 

·         Develop broad familiarity with major historical developments, themes, patterns and issues.

·         Frame relevant research topics and conduct research appropriate to the undergraduate level.

·         Express research findings and generally communicate effectively in writing.

At the conclusion of History 424, students should be able to:

·         Synthesize assigned materials to build a broad familiarity with American environmental history.  

·         Identify and explain the major developments of American environmental history, including its ecological, cultural, and political components.

·         Use primary sources and secondary scholarship critically to arrive at independent conclusions to historical questions.

·         Read critically, pose intelligent questions, listen attentively, and write coherently.

·         Recognize the similarities and differences of past societies and communities with our own to broaden perspectives.

·         Use new knowledge appropriately and responsibly, now and in the future, as part of an educated citizenry.