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Chad
Montrie
Office Hours: Tues, 12:30-2,
306 Coburn
Hall (ext. 4275)
Thurs., 12:30-2:30, and by appt.
chad_montrie@uml.edu
http://faculty.uml.edu/chad_montrie/
This course explores the environmental history of
early
America
and the
United States
from the end of the last ice age (c. 12,500 years ago) to the present.
It examines the role played by nature as an historical agent as
well as the relationship between human communities and the physical and
organic environment. Course themes include evolving land use, the
environmental significance of industrial capitalism, urban public health,
resource conservation and wilderness protection, the impact of ecology on
public consciousness, and modern environmentalism.
Among the major questions we will investigate are: How have human
beings in what became the
United States
used and thought about the natural environment?
In what ways has this changed over time and varied by cultural
group? In what ways did nature
impose its own limits on human use and consciousness?
Did Americans degrade or abuse the environment?
How did they respond to perceived and real environmental
degradation? How did class,
race, and gender shape these responses?
Were the responses effective? Why
or why not?
Assigned
Readings
(available
at South Campus bookstore and local libraries):
Shepard
Krech, The Myth of the Ecological
Indian
Dianne Glave and Mark Stoll, To
Love the Wind and the Rain
Karl Jacoby, Crimes
Against Nature
Michael Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma
Webpage Documents (available at http://faculty.uml.edu/chad_montrie/):
Writing
Guidelines
Assignments:
Analytical
Essays – 40%
Film Reviews – 30%
Ellen Swallow Richards Project – 30%
Analytical
Essays:
A considerable amount (40 percent) of your final course grade will come
from the average of four analytical essays.
These should address the assigned topics below (see the specific
questions posted to our course webpage) and they will require use of lecture material, readings, and films.
The essays should be 2-3 pages in length (typed, double-spaced,
with one inch margins), and they are due in class on the date listed
in the lecture and reading schedule.
You can do all five and drop the lowest grade, or have a pass on
one of your choosing.
Essay
#1 – Columbian Exchange (due Sept. 16th)
Essay #2 – Native American Ecology (due Sept. 23d)
Essay #3 – Class and Conservation (due oct. 16th)
Essay #4 – Economic and Environmental Recovery (due Oct. 30th)
Essay #5 – Modern Food Production (due Nov. 13th)
Film
Reviews:
The other writing assignments for the course are two film reviews, each
worth 15 percent of your final course grade.
These should respond to two of the films (your choice) below, or
others that I agree are appropriate. Like
the analytical essays, the papers also should be 2-3 pages in length
(typed, double-spaced, with one inch margins), due in class on the date
listed in the lecture and
reading schedule. Each review
should give a brief summary of the film, discuss its relevance to themes
or topics we are dealing with in class or readings, and engage the point(s)
and argument(s) it makes in a critical manner.
Blue
Vinyl
(2002)
Wild
Parrots of Telegraph Hill
(2003)
Grizzly
Man (2005)
Who
Killed the Electric Car?
(2006)
When
the Levees Broke
(Disc 1 - 2006)
An
Inconvenient Truth
(2006)
Ellen
Swallow Richards Project:
See the new directions by following the link on our course webpage.
Late
Paper Policy:
Failure to turn in assignments on time (which means in class) will
result
in deduction of half of a letter grade for every class meeting late.
I will only make exceptions to deadlines if a student has a
legitimate reason (which does not include printer trouble, hangovers,
etc.) and written documentation.
Grading
Scale: On
all assignments the grading scale is as follows: A (92.5 and above), A-
(89.5 to 92.4), B+ (87.5 to 89.4), B (82.5 to 87.4), B- (79.5 to 82.4), C+
(77.5 to 79.4), C (72.5 to 77.4), C- (69.5 to 72.4), D+ (67.5 to 69.4), D
(62.5 to 67.4), and F (62.4 and below).
If at any time you have questions about the grading on an
assignment and/or wish to dispute a grade you should come see me during
office hours. I will only
consider serious and well-reasoned arguments for changing a grade.
Plagiarism
and Cheating:
When you use the words or ideas of others, you must document your
source with the proper method of citation.
For this course, you will be expected to use footnotes to indicate
your sources. The one
exception to this rule is the use of lecture material. Evidence of
plagiarism in papers—in violation of University policy—will result in
an F on the assignment.
Classroom/Course
Accommodations:
If you have any special learning needs please let me know and I will see
about making the course and/or classroom more accommodating (typically you
must have documentation from Disability Services).
Also notify me if your religious observances conflict at some point
with assignment due dates and we will make different arrangements if
necessary.
Tentative
Lecture and Reading Schedule:
Week 1
Sept.
4 – Introductions, distribute syllabus, discuss excerpt from Pocahontas
Reading
: Krech, The Myth Ecological Indian
Week 2
Sept.
9 – Lecture: Precontact
North America
Sept. 11 – Lecture: Ecological Revolutions(?)
Readings
: Krech, The Myth Ecological Indian; Glave
and Stoll, To Love the Wind, chs.
1, 2, and 3
Week 3
Sept.
16 – Lecture: Tobacco, Rice, and Cotton; Essay
#1 due
Sept. 18 – Lecture:
New England
Agriculture
Reading
: Krech, The Myth Ecological Indian
Week 4
Sept.
23 – Discussion: Krech and Glave and Stoll; Essay
#2 due
Sept. 25 – Lecture: Industrialization and Transcendental Revolt
Readings
: Jacoby, Crimes Against Nature; Glave and Stoll, To Love the Wind, chs. 4 and 5
Week 5
Sept.
30 – Lecture: Species Shifting in the West
Oct. 2 – Lecture: Making a New South
Reading
: Jacoby, Crimes Against Nature
Week 6
Oct.
7 – Lecture: Dispossessing the Wilderness; Film
Review #1 due
Oct. 9 – Lecture: Resource Conservation and Environmental Banditry
Readings
: Jacoby, Crimes Against Nature; Glave and Stoll, To Love the Wind, chs. 6 and 7
Week 7
Oct.
14 – Lecture: Urban Environmental Reform
Oct. 16 – Discuss Jacoby and Glave and Stoll; Essay
#3 due
Reading
: Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma
Week 8
Oct.
21 – Lecture: New Deal for Nature
Oct. 23 – Films and Discussion: The
Plow That Broke the Plains/The River
Reading
: Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma
Week 9
Oct.
28 – Guest Speaker on Ellen Swallow Richards and
Lawrence
Experiment Station
Oct. 30 – Film and Discussion: Rachel
Carson’s Silent Spring; Essay
#4 due
Readings
: Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma; Glave and Stoll, To Love the Wind, chs. 8 and 9
Week 10
Nov.
4 – Lecture: Suburbanization and Petrochemicals
Nov. 6 – Lecture: Modern Environmentalism; Ellen
Swallow Richards Project Proposal due
Reading
: Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma
Week 11
Nov.
11 – Veteran’s Day, no class meeting
Nov. 13 – Discussion: Pollan and Glave and Stoll; Essay
#5 due
Reading
: Glave and Stoll, To
Love the Wind, ch. 10
Week 12
Nov.
18 – Lecture: Environmental Justice
Nov. 20 – Presentation and Discussion: Beehive Collective Graphic on
Strip Mining
Work
on Ellen Swallow Richards Project
Week 13
Nov.
25 – Film and Discussion: To Save
the Land and People; Film
Review #2 due
Nov. 27 – Thanksgiving, no class meeting
Work
on Ellen Swallow Richards Project
Week 14
Dec.
2 – Guest Speakers on Global Warming
Dec. 4 – Ellen Swallow Richards Project Presentations; Lesson Plan due
Work
on Ellen Swallow Richards Project
Week 15
Dec.
9 – Ellen Swallow Richards Project Presentations
Dec. 11 – Ellen Swallow Richards Project Presentations
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