Office: 389 Holloway Hall
E-mail: mllewis@salisbury.edu
Phone: (410) 677-5020
Office Hours: T/R 1-3:20, and by appointment
Course Texts: Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts
Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed
Ramachandra Guha, Environmentalism: A Global History
J.R. McNeil, Something New Under the Sun
Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World (Revised Edition)
Richard Tucker, Insatiable Appetite (Revised, Condensed Edition)
Angus Wright, The Death of Ramon Gonzalez (Revised Edition)
Supplemental Text Other readings may be placed on-line throughout the semester, as announced in class
Course Description and Objectives:
This is an enhanced course, in accord with the Fulton School initiative switching courses in the liberal arts from 3 to 4 credits. Your enhancements for this course include additional readings and writing assignments.
One of the hallmarks of the contemporary world has been the emergence of the series of intellectual, scientific, political, and industrial practices lumped together as “modernity.” One of the foci of this course is the role of nature – and human transformations thereof – in the emergence of the modern world. A second emphasis of this course will be upon the impact of modernity upon the natural world. Modernity has brought numerous benefits to humanity – but especially in the last hundred years, we have become aware of a number of environmental ramifications resulting from the processes of modernity. As modernity has been a global process, so to has environmentalism increasingly focused upon the global nature of environmental problems – there are no strictly local environmental crises. Whether one is discussing the Chernobyl disaster, the crab fishery in Maryland, or global warming, the problem, as well as the proposed solutions, are couched in international terms. As such, environmentalism is at the center of twentieth century debates about the limits of modern development. In this course we will study the ways in which nature and human societies have interacted throughout the modern period, and the emergence of this contemporary international environmentalism, a history closely linked to the history of the modern world – from European expansion, to colonialism and revolt, nationalism, and the politics of the Cold War.
Course Requirements:
Attendance: Your attendance is required. You will be responsible for making up any material missed. Excessive absences will result in a lower participation grade.
Preparation: You are responsible for completing the assigned readings for each class meeting. In this course I will be using a mixture of lectures and discussions. The university suggests that you should spend 3-4 hours at home doing work for every one hour in class. I reserve the right to give unannounced quizzes over the readings at any time. Also note that your examinations will not just be derived from in-class discussions and lectures. You are responsible for all of the material assigned, even if it was not directly discussed in class. It is impossible to underestimate how important it is to read the assignments! It will make the class far simpler to understand, and will help your grade immeasurably.
Participation: Your participation in class, or lack thereof, will be noted. Active participation is a precondition for success in this class. Participation does not simply mean attendance – it means asking questions, offering your opinions in class discussions, and coming to class prepared.
Examinations: You will have one in-class examination, and a final exam. If you miss a scheduled examination, you will not have the opportunity for a make-up, barring some truly spectacular and documented reason, cleared with me PRIOR to the examination.
Papers: You will be asked to write one longer paper. You will also be asked to prepare short writings, of different types, throughout the course of this semester. Some will be in-class reactions, and others will be more formal assignments completed out-of-class in response to our course texts. History majors who chose to do so can write one of their required 12-15 page papers for this class in lieu of the regularly assigned class paper (if you chose this option, please e-mail me by February 13).
Map Quizzes: As assigned in class, these will count towards your participation, reading quiz, and map grade.
Short Essays: 25%
Mid-Term Examination: 25%
“A Day in the Life” essay: 15%
Final Examination: 25%
Grading Scale: A 90-100%
B 80%-89%
C 70-79%
D 60-69%
F 59% and below
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Course Schedule
January 26: The World We Live In
January 28: What is Global Environmental History?
McNeil, Something New under the Sun, Preface
Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts, pp. 1-17
February 2: The Emergence of the Modern World
Marks: at least first half of Origins of the Modern World
February 4: The Emergence of the Modern World, continued
Marks, completed
February 4: Supplementary required Lecture at 7:00 pm, Wicomico Room in GUC, on Population and Economic Growth and the Chesapeake Bay
February 9: European Imperialism
Davis, LVH, at least up to page 210
February 11: Science, Weather, and History
Davis, LVH, at least up to page 277
February 16: Making the Third world?
Davis, LVH, completed
Americas map quiz (know North, Central, and South America)
February 18: Implications
Davis assignment due
February 23: Entering the 20th Century, and Soil and Air
McNeil: Something New, Chapters 1-4
February 25: No Class Today (Dr. Lewis at ASEH conference)
March 2: Water, Biosphere, and Human habitats
McNeil, Chapters 5-9
March 4: Economics and Big Ideas
Chapter 10-11
March 9: Outlook and Review
McNeil, Chapter 12
March 23: Consumption and the Developing World: Case Studies I: sugar, bananas
Tucker, Insatiable Appetite, Intro and either chapter 1 or 2 as assigned
March 25: Consumption and the Developing World: Case Studies II: coffee, rubber
Tucker, chapter 3 or 4 as assigned
March 30: Consumption and the Developing World: Case Studies III: cattle, timber
Tucker, chapter 5 or 6, as assigned, and conclusion
Student Outlines of Tucker:
April 1: Pesticides and the Green Revolution
Wright, The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: pp. x-50
April 6: Agricultural modernity in Mexico
Wright, pp. 51-221
April 8: Theories of Development
Wright, pp. 222-243
April 13: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma
Wright, completed (especially pp. 244-285)
April 15: International Environmentalism: The first wave
Guha, Environmentalism, pp. 1-62
April 20: Second Wave Environmentalism
Guha, pp. 63-145
April 22: Conservation: Globalization or Cultural Imperialism?
Lewis, Inventing Global Ecology pp. 1-24, .pdf via e-mail
April 27: Conservation: The case of Leopards in India
April 29: Guest Lecture: Rise Up Coffee
May 4: Case Studies of Collapse
Everyone: Diamond, pp. 1-136 (read prologue and ch 2 carefully, ch 1 and 3 quickly)
May 6: Ancient and Modern Collapse
Diamond, chapter 4-9 (one chapter as assigned), and
Diamond, chapters 10-13 (one chapter, as assigned),
And EVERYONE reads: chapters 14-15
Group 1: Matt A., Dawn B., Christine B., Connor B., Gordon C.: Chapters 4, 10
Group 2: Scott D., Emily E., Meghan E., Taylor G., James G. : Chapters 5, 11
Group 3: Tyler H., Juliana H., Alex J., Chris J., Bridget K.: Chapters 6, 12
Group 4: Becky L., Richard L., Tracy L, Alison M. : Chapters 7, 12
Group 5: Marshall M., Matt M ., Tim P., Amanda R., Leigh R.: Chapters 8, 13
Group 6: Stephanie S., Adam S., Emily W., Jennifer W.: Chapters 9, 13
Please note: Outlines for these chapters must be a MAXIMUM of two pages.
May 11: Global Environmental History and the Future
Everyone: Diamond, chapter 16
Final Exam: Thursday, May 14, 1:30-4:00
Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing across the Curriculum is a nationally recognized initiative that is designed to improve students’ learning through encouraging different types of writing in all university courses. This course is committed to this program, and in addition to written essay examinations, you will write a series of papers requiring you to engage the course material and formulate your own arguments.
Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is central to your education. Always give credit where it is due: cite your sources with great care. Where you do not cite, you imply that the words or ideas are your own-if they are not, the result is a violation of academic integrity. If you ever have questions about how to cite or what credit should be given where and for what, ASK!
Please refer to the ‘Academic Integrity’ section of the current Catalog and to the “Policy on Student Academic Integrity” in the Student Handbook for further specifics. Any student found guilty of an Academic Integrity Violation will be subject to a range of sanctions, from expulsion from the USM system, to failing the course.