KHID 2480 - Introduction to environmental history

Environmental themes have long been present in Western historiography. Environmental history as a self-conscious enterprise, however, has a much more specific and recent origin: the United States in the 1970s. Concerned with the role of the natural environment in human affairs, environmental history has gradually emerged as one of the most dynamic fields of academic history worldwide and has now entered the historiographical mainstream.

This seminar will introduce students to this field through the close reading of five English-language texts, selected for their methodological innovation, writing style, and broader historiographical significance: Alfred Crosby’s The Columbian Exchange (1972), William Cronon’s Changes in the Land (1983), Richard White’s The Organic Machine (1995), Dipesh Chakrabarty’s “The Climate of History” (2009), and Bathsheba Demuth’s Floating Coast (2019). Each text will occupy us for two to three weeks (depending on its length), during which we dissect its argument(s), source base, methodology, structure, plot, and writing style, and reflect on its historiographical significance.

English will be the main language of this class unless we decide collectively otherwise. In any case, I will accept written works in French.

This is a student-centered reading seminar: enrolling entails a commitment to the close reading of 2 to 3 chapters per week and to assiduous participation in the weekly discussions. As a semester assignment, students will be asked to analyze an archival folder of their choosing from an environmental history perspective. Through this work, students will not only become fully conversant with this vibrant field but also significantly enhance their general historiographical knowledge and skills.