J.M.W. Turner, Flint Castle, 1838

HISTORY 2283 X1

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

SLOT #1 Mon / Wed / Fri 8:30 - 9:30

BAC 239

Dr. David Duke

Office: Room #451, Beveridge Arts Centre

Phone / Voicemail: (902) 585-1360

E-Mail: david.duke@acadiau.can (remove the "n" when emailing me)

Office Hours, Fall Term Tues / Thurs, 8:30 – 10:30

Mon / Wed, 11:30 - 12:30

Course Introduction / Objectives: This Lecture Course (LC) survey will introduce you to the major themes of Environmental History. This field seeks to understand human history within the human-environmental relationship that is a fundamental fact of human existence. In this course we shall examine the manner in which “the environment” has served as a geographical, social, and political medium through which the identities of societies have been constructed. Hopefully, you will all – science students, professional studies students, history students, non-history arts students alike – gain a new appreciation of the historical roots and changing nature of human existence by looking at the phenomenon from the perspective that environmental history offers. We shall also pay attention to the development of the means by which we understand the environment and environmental change; in other words, we shall also be looking, tangentially, at the history of the life sciences. As students you will:

• Learn the basic philosophy of environmental history, and become conversant with its basic themes and major points of debate

• Understand the impact of the human-environment relationship on the growth, development, and even collapse of human societies; and understand the impact of historical human activities on the environment

• Become familiar with techniques of source analysis within the context of environmental history; and apply those techniques to the analysis of environmental issues both past and present

• Comprehend the historical origins of the major environmental issues facing human societies in this, the twenty-first century of the common era

Acadia Advantage: Acadia Advantage technology that will be employed in this course includes the daily use of PowerPoint presentations in lectures, an emphasis on working with online sources in support of lectures and in developing research topics, and the use of e-mail for communications (note that I will endeavour to answer all emails within 24 hours of receipt; usually less if I’m in my office when they arrive). PowerPoints will be posted on ACORN prior to the course mid-term, and again prior to the final examination. If you rely on these alone instead of actually attending lectures, I guarantee that you will fail the course. There is no substitute for the face-to-face communication afforded by lectures and discussions. Disability Access: If you are a student with a documented disability who anticipates needing accommodations in this course, please inform me after you meet with Kathy O’Rourke (902-585-1823)

disability.access@acadiau.ca or Abu Kamara (902-585-1291) abu.kamara@acadiau.ca in Accessibility

Services, Student Resource Centre, lower level of the Fountain Commons. Aid with Written Work: Your best defence against unpleasant surprises with your written work is to maintain contact with your professors in all your courses. This way you can ensure that you know exactly what they're looking for, and you may also be able to show them samples (drafts) of the assignment that you're working on and receive feedback. The Writing Centre also offers free help to all students wishing to improve their writing skills. To book a one-on-one appointment with a writing tutor, click below: writingcentre.acadiau.ca/writing-tutorials.html

To see which helpful presentations and workshops you might want to attend this year, click here:

writingcentre.acadiau.ca/workshops-and-presentations.html

Books and journal articles from the library can improve your assignments, labs, and papers. Visit the library at http://library.acadiau.ca. View resources specifically selected for your course at http://libguides.acadiau.ca/history and contact the History Librarian, Britanie Wentzell (britanie.wentzell@acadiau.ca or 1403 for research help.

Textbook: There is only one required text for the course: Anthony N. Penna, The Human Footprint: A Global Environmental History, 2nd. ed. (Wiley Blackwell, 2015). This is an excellent, recent introductory overview that highlights the major themes and topics of analysis in global environmental history today. It will form a framework for the majority of the course lectures, but the lectures themselves will emphasise different focal points. Lectures and textbook taken together will allow you to form your knowledge base for the course. In addition to the core textbook, material - both written and audiofiles - will also be available on the course's ACORN page. You will find that it covers diverse topics, from investigations into the history of the life sciences, to the philosophy of environmental movements, to current environmental issues in comparative historical perspective. Most of the sources have been posted on ACORN and are available already, but I reserve the right to post additional supporting material as the course progresses. In fact, you should expect this. Such additional material will be posted at least a week in advance of the class in which we deal with it, and I will contact you all via your Acadia email accounts to alert you of its addition. Please note that all materials on ACORN require your attention: I strongly recommend that you save copies of both written and audio materials, as they'll be needed for discussions in class and I guarantee that they'll be fair game for testing on exams. Assignments and Grade Weighting

Assignment

Grade Weight

Due Date

Mid-Term Test #1 (in class) 15% In Class, 11 October

Mid-Term Test #2 (in class) 15% In Class, 17 November

Research Project Proposal 10% Due on ACORN by midnight, 29 September (a Friday)

Research Project Presentation

30% Due on ACORN by midnight, 08 November (a Wednesday)

Final Examination 30% During Xmas Exam Period, Date T.B.A.

PLEASE NOTE: THE LATE PENALTY FOR ALL WRITTEN WORK IS 5% PER CALENDAR DAY OVERDUE, IN THE ABSENCE OF AUTHENTICATED OR DOCUMENTED PERSONAL OR MEDICAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

Brief Assignment Descriptions 1. Mid-Term Tests:

The tests, a combination of identification, fill in the blank, map test, and short-answer questions, will be held in class on 11 October and 17 November. They are closed-book tests, so no outside notes will be permitted. The tests will take 50 minutes maximum to complete and are worth 15% each toward your final grade for the course. Test #1 will cover all material up to 11 October, Test #2 will cover material from 13 Oct to 8 November.

2. Research Project: This is an assignment that will require you to work individually or in pairs to produce an audio-narrated PowerPoint or equivalent of 5 minutes' (individual) or 10 minutes' (pairs) duration on the subject of the history behind an environmental issue facing society today, or which has faced and/or shaped human society in the past. Acceptable equivalents to Powerpoint would be Apple Keynote (either exported into PowerPoint format, as only Keynote can open native Keynote presentations, or saved as a Quicktime Movie), OpenOffice Impress, or Prezi if you're feeling adventurous. You can select any topic you wish, so long as it has an historical focus to it. Thus, an examination of the Sydney Tar Ponds would be a good choice, but only if you spent the majority of your research and presentation time on the history of the Tar Ponds and the circumstances that led up to the present environmental conditions there. On the other hand, an analysis of atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons that simply analysed CFC levels in the Arctic and Antarctic since 2005, with no historical discussion of how they came to be there, or what their historical uses were, would not do well. Partly to ensure that your topics are "do-able", and partly to get you working on the project early in the term - the earlier you start, the earlier you get to finish! - you must submit a written proposal to me, on ACORN, by midnight on 29 September (a Friday). The proposal, which I would expect to be about 5 pp in length, single-spaced, must contain the following information:

• your name // or each of your pair’s members’ names and id’s;

• the tentative title of the topic;

• a 500-word (2-paragraph) outline of the topic with at least four or five thesis questions that will guide your research; and

• a mechanically correct annotated bibliography of at least ten sources, print or electronic.

Note that thesis QUESTIONS are NOT thesis STATEMENTS. At this point in your research I would absolutely not expect you to have developed thesis statements. Consider the following analogy. You are a detective investigating a crime. If you show up at the crime scene and immediately say, "That person did it. Arrest them," in the absence of compelling evidence, you wouldn't be much of a detective. However, if you show up at the crime and say, "Right. What's the murder weapon? Who has blood on their hands? Who had motive to commit the crime? Who had the opportunity?” and so on, and you then spend time gathering evidence that answers those questions, then you would be following a strong investigative line. At the END of the evidence gathering and analysis process you could confidently say, "Based on my investigations, it's pretty clear that the butler did it." THAT would be your thesis statement. At this earlier point, however - the proposal point - you should be positing QUESTIONS, not yet answers. An annotated bibliography is one in which each of your source citations includes a paragraph-length description of the source (its subject, its major argument, and how you foresee yourself using the item in your research). Annotations need not be long – indeed, they should be no longer than 100 words or so, not including the actual citation itself, of course – but they must convey the elements outlined above. Citations must be in the Chicago Manual of Style Format - this is a history course, after all! Any individual or pair that fails to submit a proposal by midnight on 13 October (that is, two weeks after the proposal assignment is due) will receive a 50% grade penalty on any final research powerpoint they submit. The submitted proposal is worth 10% of your final grade for the course, and each member of the pair will receive the same grade.

The major focus of the presentation itself must be the historical dimension of the chosen issue, although you should also pay close attention to the current status of the problem (if it persists to the present day), the major points of debate (these can range from political to economic, philosophical to social), and the potential scope and scale of the problem. I strongly encourage you to employ web-based research in undertaking your investigation: there is a great deal of excellent environmental material available on the internet; but remember that you should be cautious when approaching these materials – some of them can be tendentious and / or non-analytical in their focus. Restrict your use of web-based material to institutional sites (universities, non-governmental organisations, major environmental groups such as Greenpeace or the Sierra Club, etc., government sources, or news services such as the Environmental News Network – enn.com). Avoid, if at all possible, personal web-pages unless you can cross-reference and support material gleaned there from other sources. You may find it useful to review the excellent tutorial, Credible Sources Count, dealing with internet research developed by the staff at the Vaughan Library. It may be found at

http://library.acadiau.ca/sites/default/files/library/tutorials/webevaluation/ The presentation will be graded on a metric that includes mechanical components, the success in defining the topic and its historical dimensions, the use of graphically-presented information, the presence of a reference list, the overall timing of your narration and the presentation, and so on. I will provide a very detailed explanation of the metric, and what you must do to score well on it, later on in the course. Note that mechanics will form a substantial grading factor here. You are expected to employ Chicago Manual of Style guidelines and mechanical correctness will be a substantial factor in grading. You can find an accessible Styleguide which covers the mechanical basics on the course ACORN page, and more detailed discussions of Chicago Format may be found in the History Subject Guide accessible from the front page of the Vaughan Library website. The report is worth 30% of your final grade, with each member of the pair receiving the same grade, and is due on ACORN by midnight 8 November (a Wednesday).

4. Final Examination: The final examination will be of three hours’ duration, will be closed-book, and will consist of short-answer and essay questions. It will cover the entire material presented during the course (readings/audiofiles and videos included) and it will be sat during the Fall Term examination period, date to be announced. It is worth 30% of your final course grade.

Academic Integrity and Dishonesty I refer you to the section “Academic Integrity” to be found on p. 58 in the “Academic Policy and Regulations” section of the Acadia University Calendar, 2017-2018. You must be familiar with these guidelines to be enrolled in this course. Plagiarism is also viewed seriously by the Department of History and Classics: it is departmental policy that plagiarised work will receive a grade of F (zero), with no departmental appeal possible. In especially bad cases more severe penalties, including a course grade of F (zero) and/or a recommendation for expulsion from the university, are possible. If the transgression warrants it, I will not hesitate to seek the application of such a penalty. Please note that under no circumstances will I tolerate a breach of academic integrity: transgressions such as cheating, plagiarism, or actively aiding another student in such an act will result in -- at the very least -- a grade of zero on the offending assignment. Having said this, I also want you to know that I am aware that for many of you issues of plagiarism are both worrisome and confusing. (Cheating is an entirely different and much more simple offence; if you don't know you're cheating, then there are problems far beyond mere academic integrity involved.) In order to alleviate the plagiarism problems, you should certainly review the superb resources put together by the staff at the Vaughan Library

http://library.acadiau.ca/sites/default/files/library/tutorials/plagiarism/)

and you should complete the online "You Quote it, You Note it!" tutorial that they have prepared. Paying attention to these resources will ensure that you will be able to avoid the various plagiaristic pitfalls that exist. (It also means that, if you do plagiarise, the defence of ignorance will not be available.) In any event, it all boils down to the best defence possible, thus: IF IN DOUBT, PROVIDE A SOURCE!!!

Lecture Schedule

Week 1 (06/08 Sept) – Course Introduction, and Introduction to Environmental History as a Discipline (Reading: Penna, Introduction (optional); ACORN Week 1 Material) Week 2 (11 / 13 / 15 Sept) – Setting the Stage: The Earth and its Impact on Us (Reading, Penna, Chapters 1 and 2) Documentary: BBC - How Earth Made Us (2010) Week 3 (18 / 20 / 22 Sept) – The First Great Transition: Preagricultural Existence to Agricultural Civilization (Penna, Chapter 3, pp. 69-77) Week 4 (25 / 27 / 29 Sept) – The Social and Environmental Limitations of Premodern Agriculture (Penna, Chapter 3, pp. 77-98) Research Project Proposal Due, on ACORN, by Midnight 29 September Week 5 (02 / 04 / 06 Oct) – Populating the Earth – Diet, Domestication, and Disease (Penna, Chapter 4; ACORN Week 5 Material) Documentary: National Geographic - "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (2007) Friday 6 October is a Fall-Term Study Day; no class. Week 6 (09 / 11 / 13 Oct) – Europe Unbound: The Environmental Dimension to European Expansion After 1500, Part I (Penna, Chapter 8, pp. 235-258; ACORN Week 6/7 Material) Monday 9 October is Thanksgiving; no class. (Midterm Test #1, in Wednesday’s class) Week 7 (16 / 18 / 20 Oct) – Europe Unbound: The Environmental Dimension to European Expansion After 1500, Part II (Penna, Chapter 8, pp. 235-258; ACORN Week 6/7 Material) Week 8 (23 / 25 / 27 Oct) – The Industrial Revolution(s) (Reading: Penna, Chapter 7; ACORN Week 8 Material) Week 9 (30 Oct / 01 / 03 Nov) – Urbanisation in History (Penna, Chapter 5; ACORN Week 9 Material)

Week 10 (06 / 08 / 10 Nov) – Affluence and its Limits (Reading: Penna, Chapter 8, pp. 258-268; ACORN Week 10 Material) Friday 10 November is a Fall-Term Study Day; no class. Week 11 (13 / 15 / 17 Nov) – Midterm Test #2 Monday 13 November is Remembrance Day Holiday; Wednesday 15 November is a Fall-Term Study Day; no class. (Midterm Test #2, in Friday's class) Week 12 (20 / 22 / 24 Nov) – Climate: The Earth in and out of Balance (Reading: Penna, Chapter 9, and Chapter 10, pp. 312-324; ACORN Week 12 Material)

Documentary: BBC Horizon - Global Dimming (2010) Week 13 (27 / 29 Nov / 1 Dec) – The Politics and History of Climate Change; or, Why We Can't (?) Act (Reading: Penna, Chapter 10, pp.324-335; ACORN Week 13 Material)

Week 14 (04 / 06 Dec) – Conclusions: Facing the Future (Together); Review, Discussion of Final Exam, Course Evaluation: Does Environmental History Matter? (Reading: Penna, Epilogue; ACORN Week 14 Material)