Unit information: Beyond Human History: Environmental History from Imperialism to Sustainability (Level H Reflective History) in 2008/09

Unit name	Beyond Human History: Environmental History from Imperialism to Sustainability (Level H Reflective History)
Unit code	HIST38015
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Pearson
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Are human beings part of nature? Does nature have a history? What role have nonhumans (such as animals, plants, and climatic conditions) played in history? This unit addresses these questions by exploring how environmental history challenges and informs political, social, and cultural histories of imperialism, war, urban modernity, and political ideology. Drawing on case studies from the UK, Europe (and former colonies), and the US, it considers why historical narratives tend to overlook nonhuman actors and how this contributes to the Western idea of a 'great divide' between culture and nature. It also considers a range of other issues, including the environmental dimensions of war and imperialism, the political instrumentalisation of nature, nonhuman agency, and the surprising nature of urban areas. This unit concludes by asking whether or not environmental history offers a 'usable past' in an age of concern over climate change and environmental sustainability.

Teaching Information

• 1 hour intro to unit

• 5 x 2 hour seminars,

Assessment Information

1 x 24 hour seen exam

Reading and References

• V. Anderson, Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America (2004)

• William Cronon, Natures Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (1991)

• Craig Colten, An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature (2005)

• Donna Haraway, When Species Meet (2008)

• John M. MacKenzie, The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism (1988)

• Edmund Russell, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War 1 to Silent Spring (2001)

• John McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century World (2000)

• Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Natures Role in American History (2002)

• Harriet Ritvo, The Animal Estate: The English and other creatures in the Victorian age (1987)

• Frank Uekoetter, The Green and the Brown: A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany (2006)

• Douglas Weiner, A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbach�v (1999)