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Environmental HistoryCalder
Final Exam
Address the following topic in a well thought-out, well-written essay. You should draw on lecture, assigned articles, monographs and documents. You do NOT need to do any outside research. You do not need to cite lectures, but must cite any/all readings and documents, whether quoting directly, paraphrasing or drawing on an author’s argument. Additionally, all sources should appear in a Works Cited page. In addressing the question, make sure to include examples to illustrate your points. Do not write more than 10 pages (that said, I do not expect you will NEED to write 10 pages, I’m just saying I’m not going to read more than 10 pages). The points breakdown is given by section.
Topic: Discuss the evolution of the environment, and the environmental movement, in the United States in the twentieth century.
Begin your discussion with the rise of preservationist and conservationist ideologies, the debates between then and the “battle” over Hetch Hetchy. What was the result? (15 pts)
Second, discuss environmental changes in the early 1900s, with industrialization, associated urbanization and immigration, and the western frontier. (20 pts)
Then, discuss the Great Depression/Dust Bowl era. How was the Dust Bowl both a culmination of, and a break from, the earlier period? What changed and what did not? (10 pts)
Next, discuss the “Long Fifties” in America (approximately 1945-1963). What were the effects of WWII, the subsequent Cold War and the post-war culture of affluence on the environment? Begin discussions of trash and nuclear weapons in this section, which should continue through the next sections. (15 pts)
Discuss the “Green Decade” of the 1970s. As a transition, discuss how the culture/tenor of that time helped set the stage for the “Green Decade” of the 70s? What factors in society prompted the emergence of the large-scale environmental movement(s) of the 70s? When discussing the Green Decade, make sure to place it in its proper context in relation to the larger social revolutions of “The Sixties,” as well as the larger evolution of thoughts/activisms on the environment. What were the results of the Green Decade? (Positive? Negative?) (20 pts)
Then, discuss the backlash against environmentalism in the 1980s, its causes and its results. What new patterns, surrounding environmentalism, have emerged since then? Discuss the emerging spectrum of opinions and activisms on the environment and the idea of environmental activism being pro-active or reactive, and give examples. (10 pts)
-Finish by discussing your opinion on the current state of our environment and the environmental movement. Where do we need to go from here, and how do we get there? (10 pts)
Required Reading:
Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900
Shepard Krech III, The Ecological Indian: Myth and History
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s
Susan Strasser, Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash
The uses of env history by William cronon
Major Problems in American Environmental History, 3rd Edition, Carolyn Merchant, ed., (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2011):
Craven, “Tobacco and Soils in the Chesapeake,” Major Problems in American Environmental History, 3rd Edition, Carolyn Merchant, ed., (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2011):
Sign Wars: The Cluttered landscape of Advertising
Dead Cities: And Other Tales
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