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Required Readings

Grading Breakdown

Classroom Behavior and Standards

Schedule

Guestbook

This course will explore the environment and history of the American West. In particular, we will be interested in questions of how human beings have perceived and interacted with their environments over time. We will explore both issues concerning specific sub-regions of the American West -- such as logging and over-fishing in the Pacific Northwest -- and those that concern the region as a whole. The history of the American environmental movement, however, will not be our primary focus.

The complexity of this topic requires that students be focused and engaged with the materials. This means attending class on a regular basis, and keeping up with the readings. Note that the reading load is fairly heavy!

• Edward Abbey, The Journey Home.
• Ian Frazier, Great Plains.
• John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra.
• Wallace Stegner, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs
• Richard White, The Organic Machine.
• Articles available on reserve and announced in class and listed here:

• William Wyckoff and Lary M. Dilsaver, "Defining the Mountainous West," in Wyckoff and Dilsaver, eds., The Mountainous West: Explorations in Historical Geography, (1995): 1-59.
• Terry Tempest Williams, "The Clan of One-Breasted Women," in Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, (1991): 281-90.
• Peter Matthiessen, "Great Basin," in Matthiessen, Indian Country, (1979, 1984): 261-89.
• Valerie L. Kuletz, excerpts from The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West, (1998): x-xix; 1-18; 48; 60; 68; 71.
• McEvoy, Arthur F. “Toward an Interactive Theory of Nature and Culture: Ecology, Production, and Cognition in the California Fishing Industry,” in The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History, ed. Donald Worster (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988): 211-229.

Midterm 25%

Proposal 5%

Research Project 40%

Final 30%

Be prompt and on time to lectures, so that you do not disturb your classmates or professor. Eating or drinking during lectures is fine, but, again, try to avoid disturbing others. Remember to take out your trash as well. If you absolutely must be late (or have to leave early), aim for a seat next to a door.

Turn in assignments on time and in the best possible condition . This means that they must be handed in by the end of class on the day they are due.

All work should have your name, date, and the title of the course on them.

You will be assessed based on the clarity, effectiveness, and originality of your work.

Papers should be clear and well-organized. Other work (maps, photographs, illustrations, models) should also be easy to read and understand. Sloppy work (little or no proofreading, obvious errors or corrections, ineffective organization, and so on) will count against you. If you are unsure about your ability to produce such work, please seek assistance as soon as possible. OASIS (3rd floor, Center Hall) is a good place to start.

Your argument should be easy to discern, regardless of the physical form it takes, and supported with relevant, focused evidence.

Work should be presented in a manner to facilitate handling; papers should be stapled (but NO folders); photographs, etc. should be clearly labeled; and three-dimensional projects should be of a size (and durability) to facilitate transport and storage.

LATE work will be penalized severely! Taking an extra day will not make enough difference to make turning it in late worthwhile; indeed, you will probably come out worse off than you would be if your project were in on time.

Lectures, books, and articles are all fair game for the exams, by the way.

Be respectful and polite towards others and their ideas . Of course, at times you may find yourself disagreeing strongly with certain points being made. Indeed, it is hoped that you will develop your own perspective on and critique of the materials. But remember that other people are trying to do the same, and respect their efforts as you would like them to respect yours.

A note on academic misconduct --

Any student who engages in such activities is risking severe penalties, up to and including expulsion from the university. It also defeats the whole purpose of taking the class in the first place -- that is, to learn something. If you’re thinking about cheating or plagarizing, don’t even bother taking the class. It would be a waste of time for both of us.

If you have any questions about any of this, please ask.

Thursday, January 13
Lecture: What Is the American West? Overview of Issues

Readings:

Wallace Stegner, "Introduction" in Where the Bluebird Sings.

OPTIONAL Readings:

The New Western History: The Territory Ahead, ed. Forrest G. Robinson, (1997).
The Oxford History of the American West, eds. Clyde A. Milner II, Carol A. O'Connor, and Martha A. Sandweiss, (1994).
Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America's Western Past, eds. William Cronon, George Mills, and Jay Gitlin, (1992).

A Round Table: Environmental History -- a special issue of Journal of American History 76 (March 1990).
William Cronon, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative," Journal of American History 78 (March 1992): 1347-76.
William Cronon, "Landscapes of Abundance and Scarcity," in The Oxford History of the American West, (1994): 603-37.
William Cronon, "Modes of Prophecy and Production: Placing Nature in History," Journal of American History 76:4 (March 1990): 1122-31.
Richard White, "American Environmental History: The Development of a New Historical Field," Pacific Historical Review LIV:3 (August 1985); 297-335.
Richard White, "Discovering Nature in North America," Journal of American History 79 (December 1992): 874-91.
Donald Worster, "Doing Environmental History," in The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History, ed. Donald Worster (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988): 289-307.
Donald Worster, "History as Natural History: An Essay on Theory and Method," Pacific Historical Review LIII:1 (February 1984): 1-19.

William Cronon, "Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier: The Legacy of Frederick Jackson Turner," Western Historical Quarterly XVIII:2 (April 1987): 158-76.
Patricia Nelson Limerick, "Disorientation and Reorientation: The American Landscape Discovered from the West," Journal of American History 79 (December 1992): 1021-49.
Donald Worster, "New West, True West: Interpreting the Region's History," Western Historical Quarterly XVIII:2 (April 1987): 141-57.

Thursday, January 21
Lecture: Case study: The Dust Bowl

Readings:

Ian Frazier, Great Plains, entire.

OPTIONAL Readings:

Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt and Depression. (1979)
Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (1913); My Antonia (1918?)
Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads.(On reserve in the Music Listening Library in the Geisel Library, call # MU 4155.)
William Least Heat-Moon, PrairyErth. (1991)
O. E. Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth. (1927)
Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (1931)
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie.
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. (1979)

Thursday, January 27
Lecture: Case study: Hard rock mining

Readings:

William Wyckoff and Lary M. Dilsaver, "Defining the Mountainous West," in Wyckoff and Dilsaver, eds., The Mountainous West: Explorations in Historical Geography, (1995): 1-59. (On reserve in the Geisel Library.)

Prepare proposal for research project.

OPTIONAL Readings:

David M. Emmons, The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925 (1989).
John McPhee, Rising from the Plains (1986).
Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose ().
Wyckoff and Dilsaver, eds., The Mountainous West: Explorations in Historical Geography, (1995)

Week 4: The Great Basin
Tuesday, January 31
Lecture: The Great Basin defined; background

Thursday, February 2: PROJECT PROPOSALS DUE
Lecture: Discussion of projects and midterm; map assessment exercise.

Readings:

Terry Tempest Williams, "The Clan of One-Breasted Women," in Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, (1991): 281-90. (On reserve in the Geisel Library.)
Peter Matthiessen, "Great Basin," in Matthiessen, Indian Country, (1979, 1984): 261-89. (On reserve in the Geisel Library.)
Valerie L. Kuletz, excerpts from The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West, (1998): x-xix; 1-18; 48; 60; 68; 71. (On reserve in the Geisel Library.)

Study for midterm next week

OPTIONAL Readings:

Matthiessen, Indian Country, (1979, 1984)
Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, (1991)
Bruce Hevly and John M. Findlay, The Atomic West (1998).
Kuletz, The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West, (1998).
Richard L. Miller, Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing, (1986).

Week 5: The Southwest
Tuesday, February 7: MIDTERM

Thursday, February 9
Lecture: Southwest defined; background

Readings:

Edward Abbey, The Journey Home, first half.

OPTIONAL Readings:

Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975); Hayduke Lives! (1990); others...
Ramon A. Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away : Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846, (1991).
D. W. Meinig, Southwest: Three Peoples in Geographical Change 1600-1970, (1971).
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, (1977).
Richard White, The Roots of Dependency: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos, (1983).
Ann Haymond Zwinger, Downcanyon: A Naturalist Explores the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, (1995).

Thursday, February 16
Lecture: California defined

Readings:

Edward Abbey, The Journey Home , remainder.

OPTIONAL Readings:

John McPhee, Assembling California, (1993).
John Wesley Powell, The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, (originally published 1895 as Canyons of the Colorado).
Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert : The American West and Its Disappearing Water, (1993).
Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West, (1953).
Donald Worster, Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West, (1985).

Week 7: California
Tuesday, February 21
Lecture: Case study: Urbanization (focus on southern California)

Thursday, February 23: PROJECT DUE
Lecture: Case study: Logging (segue into Pacific Northwest)

Readings:

John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, entire.

OPTIONAL Readings:

Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, (1998).
Theodora Kroeber, The Inland Whale: Nine Stories Retold from California Indian Legends, (1959).
John McPhee, "Los Angeles against the Mountains," in The Control of Nature, (1989).
Ray Raphael, Tree Talk : The People and Politics of Timber

Week 8: The Pacific Northwest
Tuesday, February 28
Lecture: The Pacific Northwest defined; overview

Thursday, March 1
Lecture: Case study: Fishing

Readings:

McEvoy, Arthur F. “Toward an Interactive Theory of Nature and Culture: Ecology, Production, and Cognition in the California Fishing Industry,” in The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History, ed. Donald Worster (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988): 211-229. (On reserve in the Geisel Library.)

Richard White, The Organic Machine, entire.

OPTIONAL Readings:

Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia: A Novel, (1975).
David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, (1994).
William Kittredge, Hole in the Sky: A Memoir, (1992).

Thursday, March 8
Lecture: Case study: Tourism and National Parks

Readings:

OPTIONAL Readings:

Anne Farrar Hyde, An American Vision: Far Western Landscape and National Culture, 1820-1920, (1990).
Hal K. Rothman, Devil's Bargains : Tourism in the Twentieth Century American West, (1998).

Week 10: The Greater West
Tuesday, March 13
Lecture: Common Western themes

Thursday, March 15
Lecture: Where do we go from here?

Readings:

Don’t forget to get a good night’s rest before the final! (Yeah, I know… unlikely -- but do try!)

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