Green course This is a zero-footprint green course. All papers must be submitted electronically.

Transcription

1 1 Instructor: Prof. Peder Anker Office hours: Tuesday 2-4 Office: 1 Washington pl., room 425 Phone: Environmentalism: A Global History FIRST-UG78 Gallatin School of Individualized Study New York University Fall 2011 Monday and Wednesday, 9:30-10:45 1 Washington pl. room 501 Course description: We think of environmentalism as a new political movement, but in fact it has a long history-- one that has always been engaged as well with questions about the relationship between different parts of the globe. This course traces the history of environmentalism, ecology, and public health back to natural history collecting and bioprospecting in the 18th century. The global history of ecological concern stays at the center of this course, which discusses this in the Swedish, British, German, Russian, South African, South American, and North American contexts in subsequent centuries. We will ask: How did scholars and activists around the world conceptualize the global? Whose knowledge and which rationality came to frame our environmental thinking? This seminar will try to untangle the social and intellectual dynamics between natural sciences and environmentally concerned citizens. Readings will include Carolus Linnaeus, Henry David Thoreau, Jan Chr. Smuts, and Garret Hardin. Papers and assignments A weekly reading journal to be handed in every Tuesday. There will also be a 5-8 page midterm paper due October 11, and a page final paper due December 14. Late papers are not accepted. Statement on Academic Integrity As a Gallatin student you belong to an interdisciplinary community of artists and scholars who value honest and open intellectual inquiry. This relationship depends on mutual respect, responsibility, and integrity. Failure to uphold these values will be subject to severe sanction in accordance with the Student Discipline Rules of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. 1 Grading and attendance Mandatory attendance. 40% Course participation/ weekly journal 20% Midterm paper 40 % Final paper Green course This is a zero-footprint green course. All papers must be submitted electronically. 1 Anonymous, Academic Integrity, Uploaded March 1, This webpage contains examples of what the Gallatin School at New York University considers plagiarism, illicit collaboration, doubling or recycling coursework, and cheating.

2 2 Books to borrow or buy: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, any edition. Ramachandra Guha, Environmentalism: A Global History, (New York: Longman, 1999), or later editions. Henry David Thoreau, Walden, any edition. Online: Course outline: 5 Sept: Introduction 10 Sept: Green Imperialism Richard H. Grove, Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 1-15, Sept: Linnaeus Lisbet Koerner, God s Endless Larder, Linnaeus: Nature and Nation, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 82-94, notes Carolus Linnaeus, The Economy of Nature, Benjamin J. Stillingfleet (trans.), in Human Life and the Natural World, Owen Goldin and Patricia Kilroe (eds.), (Peterborough: Broadview press, 1997), Sept: No class 19 Sept: No class 24 Sept: Plants and Empire Londa Schiebinger, Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), Sept: British Imperial Ecology Guha, Environmentalism, Chapter 1-4.

3 3 Arthur George Tansley, The Future Development and Functions of the Oxford Department of Botany, Inaugural Lecture 22 November 1927, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927). Evening guest lecture: Gregg Mitman Time, place and title to be determined 1 Oct: Holism and The Spirit of the Mountain Guha, Environmentalism, Chapter 6. Jan Christian Smuts, The Spirit of the Mountain, 1923, in Greater South Africa, Plans for a Better World, (Johannesburg: The Truth legion, 1940), Jan Christian Smuts, Preamble for the United Nations Charter, draft, undated, one page. Background: Peder Anker, The Politics of Ecology in South Africa on the Radical Left, Journal of the History of Biology 37 (2004), Oct: Holistic Ecology and Racism John Phillips, Man at the Cross-Roads, in Anonymous (ed.), Our Changing World-View, (Johannesburg : University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1932), 51-70, Thomas Park, Ecological Sociology, Ecology 14 (1933), John Phillips, The Biotic Community, Journal of Ecology, 19 (1931), Oct. Open/Midterm paper review 10 Oct: Writing about British imperialism Midterm papers due! Peder Anker, Ecological Communication at the Oxford Imperial Forestry Institute, in Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and their Environmental Legacies, Christina Folke Ax (et.al.) (ed.), (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011), Oct: Fall break 17 Oct: How Green Were the Nazis? Background

4 4 Michael Import, Eternal Forest Eternal volk : The Rhetoric and Reality of National Socialist Forest Policy, in Franz-Josef Bruggemeier, Mark Cioc and Thomas Zeller (eds.), How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich (Athens: Ohio University Press 2005), Oct: How Green Were the Nazis? Primary Source Albert Ebner, German Forests: Treasures of a Nation (New York: German Library Information, 1940), entire. 24 Oct: Soviet Environmentalism Guha, Environmentalism, chapter 7. Stephen Brain, Stalin's Environmentalism, The Russian Review, 69 (2010), Oct: Tropical Modernism in Brazil Nancy L. Stepan, Tropical Modernism: Designing the Tropical Landscape, Journal of Tropical Geography, 21 (2002), Oct: Constructing the North American Wild Christine Macy and Sarah Bonnemaison, Architecture and Nature: Creating the American Landscape, (New York: Routledge, 2003), Nov: Conservation Refugees John Muir, A voice for wilderness, (1901, 1912), in American Environmentalism, Roderick Frazier Nash (ed.), (New York: McGrew-Hill, 1990), Mark Dowie, Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009), Nov: Thoreau Henry David Thoreau, Walden, entire, any edition. 12 Nov: Oak Ridge Guha, Environmentalism, chapter 5. Stephen Bocking, Ecosystems, ecologists, and the atom: Environmental research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Journal of the History of Biology, 28 (1995), Evening FILM

5 5 Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, episode 2, The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts, BBC, June Nov: Rachel Carson Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, entire, any edition. 19 Nov: Capturing Rachel Carson Frank Graham Jr., Silent Spring: The genesis and the storm, Audubon, 72 (January 1970), Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt, (New York: Bloomsbury, 2010), Nov: Thanksgiving 26 Nov: Spaceship Ecology Eugene B. Konecci, Space ecological systems, in Bioastronautics, Karl E. Schaefer (ed.), (New York: Macmillan, 1964), Stewart Brand (ed.), Space Colonies, (New York: Penguin, 1977), entire. 28 Nov: The Whole Earth Stewart Brand (ed.), Whole Earth Catalog, 1968 edition. 3 Dec. Only One Earth Guha, Environmentalism, chapter 8. Barbara Ward (et.al.), Who Speaks for the Earth? (New York: Norton, 1973), Dec. Environmental Ethics for the Whole World Garret Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons, Science Vol. 162 (December 13, 1968), Garret Hardin, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor Psychology Today 8 (1974), 38-43, Dec. Open/ Essay review

6 6 12 Dec. Final day of class Final papers due!