HISTORY-1240-FALL 2020: ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY SURVEY
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The general education proficiency in Social Science (explain human behavior using social scientific concepts and evidence) will be demonstrated in an assignment that requires students to:
- Identify and explain social factors that not only drove Americans to overextend the ecological limits of the environment; they misdirected the public from understanding this causation even as the devastating consequences of these industries unfolded.
INTRODUCTION:
In the second segment of the course, we build on both the historical and theoretical insights developed during the first segment—mainly, about industrial business geographies that emerged by the close of the nineteenth century—by exploring the significant ideas and attitudes about nature that profoundly impacted the course of environmental history in the U.S. In the landmark publication in environmental history, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, author Donald Worster sets out to explore the ultimate causes of one of the worst manmade environmental disasters in human history. Behind the reckless overplowing Worster discovers an economic culture that was blind to ecological limits. What is more, the author questions whether this grave lesson of the Dust Bowl was ever fully absorbed by the general public. In this way, the book stakes out an alarming implication: the self-destructive culture behind the Dust Bowl persists in much of American life.
CORE TASK:
Write a thoughtful, academic book review of the Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by Donald Worster, that keys on its implications/lessons for our society today based on a careful breakdown of its thesis (stages).
