History 256. Interpreting Nature:  Environmental Thinking and Practice in Europe

1500 to the Present

Fall 2006

Robert Schwartz                                                             Office Hours:

206 Skinner                                                                     Tues & Thurs: 4-5 & by appt.

e-mail: rschwart

 

Lab Assistant: Melissa Joyce
email : meljoyce@mtholyoke.edu

Books available for purchase at the Odyssey:

 

Peter Coates,  Nature : Western Attitudes since Ancient Times. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998/2004)

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Norton pb)

James Winter, Secure from Rash Assault. Sustaining the Victorian Environment. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999)

 

Course Packet available at the History Department (outside of 310 Skinner)

Readings designated by (CP) are in the course packet. There will be a charge for the packet to cover the cost of duplication and copyright fees.

 

Course Requirements (approximate weight in course grade)

1.      Attendance at all classes, a number of oral presentations, and informed participation in discussions. (15%)

2.      Two abstracts of the required readings. (10%)

3.      Two lab reports. (15%)

4.      An essay (10 to 12 pages. Key parts of the essay will be presented orally) (35%)

5.      A final exam (25%)

 

Collaboration Groups

          The class will divide into groups, each of which will collaborate over the semester to prepare materials for 1)short summaries of optional readings, and 2) the framing of questions for discussion, 3) a group presentation on November 29, based on your essays due on November 20. I will meet with each group from time to time to assist them. Much of this collaboration can take place with modest effort via the web discussion forum. Credit for your participation in this collaboration will be determined by peer evaluation. This part of your course work will form a major part of the 15 percent of your final grade that is defined as attendance, class and group presentations.

 

Schedule of Topics and Readings

 

Conceptions of Nature from Antiquity to the Enlightenment

 

Sept. 8

 

 

Introduction

Coates, Nature, chap. 1

Sept. 13

 

Coates, Nature, chaps 2-6. (From ancient Greece and Rome to the 18th century)

Blackbourn, David. "Conquests from Barbarism." Taming Nature in Frederick the Great's Prussia." In Nature in German History, edited by Christof Mauch. New York, 2004 (CP3)

 Optional: McNeill, J. R. "Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History." History & Theory 42, no. 4 (2003): 5-43 (CP3)

Post on the Web Forum by Wednesday 9 a.m. an abstract of a chapter from Coates or Blackbourn’s article. (ungraded)

Nature as Muse: The Romantic Turn of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century

 

Sept. 20

Jean Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, and William Wordsworth

Coates, Nature, chap. 7

Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  selections on Nature; The Reveries of a Solitary Walker (ca. 1774-76), selection (CP1)

Charleton, New Views of the Natural in France, chap. 3: “Wild Sublimity”

Optional: chap. 3 Pastoral Landscapes] (CP1)

Adam Smith, “Philosophic Calm” from “The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries, illustrated by the History of Astronomy,” ca. 1750; and “Of the Beauty Which the appearance of Utility Bestows upon all the Productions of Art, and of the Extensive Influence of this Species of Beauty,” from The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759, pp. 295-300, in Clayre (read introductory note for section XIX, pp. xxxiii-xxxiv) (CP1)

W. Wordsworth, “Above Tintern Abbey,” from Lyrical Ballads, 1798, with an introductory note. (CP1)

Optional: Selections from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Diary (Electronic Reserve)

 

Written Work

 

Short paper (abstract), September 23 at 5 p.m. Send by email attachment.

Sept. 27

 

Mary Shelly: The Cost of Breaking with Nature

Shelley, Frankenstein, entire.

Optional:

Reviews of Frankenstein: Quarterly Review (Jan. 1818); Edinburgh Magazine (March 1818); Hugh R. Haweis, Introduction to the Rutledge World Library Edition (1886), pp. 187-201 in the Norton Critical Edition of Frankenstein

 

Written work

 

Abstract of Shelle due in class.  

Nature Geared to Steam: The Industrial Revolution and Environmental Change in Britain

 

Oct. 4

 

Early Industrialization and the Debate on its Effects

Andrew Ure, “The Blessings of the Factory System,” from The Philosophy of Manufactures, 1835, pp. 67-72, in Clayre (optional: read introductory note for section V, pp. xxiv-xxv) (CP1)

Alexis de Tocqueville, “Manchester,” from Journeys to England and Ireland, 1835, pp. 117-19, in Clayre (read introductory note for section VIII, pp. xxv-xxvi) (CP1)

Winter, Secure from Rash Assault, Introduction, Conclusion, chaps. 1-2.

Optional: chap. 3 Lowland Fields; 4 Upland Moors

David Foster, Thoreau’s Country, “Landscape Change (209-220)”; “Insights into the Ecology and Conservation of the Land (220-229) (CP1)

Optional:

Charles Dickens, “Coketown,” from Hard Times, 1854, pp. 124-27, in Clayre (CP1)

William Wordsworth, “Outrage Done to Nature,” from  The Excursion, 1814, pp. 175-177, in Clayre (CP1)

 

Break

October 7-10

 

Oct. 11

 

Oct 13 Friday

 

Introduction to GIS

Field Trip to Harvard Forest in Peterborough, Massachusetts

 

 

 

Oct. 18

The Victorians and the Environment: The City and the Country

Winter, Secure from Rash Assault, either chap. 7 Holes or chap. 8 Heaps, chap. 9 The City in the Country and 10 Greening the City

Optional: chap. 11 The Environment of Leisure; The Hungry Ocean

Douglas, Ian, Rob Hodgson, and Nigel Lawson. "Industry, Environment and Health through 200 Years in Manchester." Ecological Economics 41, no. 2 (2002): 235. (CP3)

Optional:

Friedrich Engels, “Manchester,” from The Conditions of the Working Class in England, 1844-45, pp. 122-24, in Clayre (CP2)

Robert Vaughan,. The Age of Great Cities: or, Modern Society Viewed in Its Relation to Intelligence, Morals, and Religion, selection (CP2) 

Rees, “Revisiting carrying capacity: Area-based indicators of sustainability.” E-Reserves

 

Written work

R Schwartz, “Railways and Population Change in Industrializing England,” chapter 1. (CP2)

Howell, “The Impact of Railways on Agricultural Development in Nineteenth-Century Wales.” E-Reserves

C.S. Hallas, “The social and economic impact of a rural railway: the Wensleydale line” E-Reserves

One-page lab report due on Friday, October 27. Send by email attachment.

 

Oct. 25

Industrial Technology: The Railroad

Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey. Trains and Travel in the 19th Century, chap. 3 “Railroad Space and Railroad Time,” chap. 4 “Panoramic Travel” and chap. 12 “Tracks in the City.” (CP2)

Winter, Secure from Rash Assault, chap. 6 Cutting New Channels

R. Schwartz, “Railways and Population Change in Industrializing England,” chapter 2 (CP2)

 

 

Nov. 1

 

 

 

 

 

Lab. Migration in Industrializing England

Lawton, Richard, and Colin G. Pooley. Britain, 1740-1950: an Historical Geography (London, 1992), chap. 8 (Demographic Change, 1830-1890; 13 (Demographic Change, 1890-1940s); chap. 9 (Countryside), chap. 10 (Industrialization) (CP2)

Optional chap. 7 (Political context 1830-1890) (CP2)

Emanuel Lovekin (mining butty) and Thomas Wood (engineer) in Burnett, Useful Toil

 

Written work

 

Lab report due on Friday, November 5 by 5 p.m. Send by email attachment.

Nov. 8

 

 

Railways and the Urban & Rural Environment

Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey, chap. 12 “Tracks in the City” (CP2)

Jack Simmons, The Railway in Town and Country, chap. 2 (London) or chap. 4 (Great Provincial Cities); chap. 10 Rural England and Wales (CP2)

Optional

William Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes, Letters and poem on the Windermere Railway (CP2)

 

Nov. 15

Darwin: Man in Nature

Peter Marshall, “Darwinism and the Web of Life,” chap. 23 in Nature’s Web. An Exploration of Ecological Thinking (New York, 1992) (CP2).

 

Written Work

 

Paper due on Monday, November 20. Send by email attachment.

Break

November 22-26

The Twentieth Century: The Past in the Present

 

Nov. 29

Group Presentations based on papers

 

Dec. 6

Robert Pois, National Socialism and the Religion of Nature, chap. 3; “Man in the Natural World,” and Conclusion.

Optional: chap. 5 “The Natural, Authentic Man and the Road to Auschwitz”(CP2).

Peter Marshall,  “The Resurrection of Gaia,” chap. 28 in Nature’s Web;

James Lovelock, “Gaia,” from C. Merchant, ed., Ecology, 198-206

 (CP2)

 

 

 

 

Sandra Chaney, “For Nation and Prosperity, Health, and a Green Environment. Protecting Nature in West Germany, 1945-70,” In Nature in German History, edited by Christof Mauch. New York, 2004 Ch. 5. (CP3)

Coates, Nature, chaps. 8

 

 

Dec. 13

Conclusion: Change and Continuity

Coates, Nature, chaps. 9

William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness: or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” from Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York, 1996); (CP2)

Review for Final Exam