Environmental History

I. NOTES

A. Marxism is one theory of materialism, there are others
B. You don't have to be a Marxist to be a materialist

II. Environmental History

A. It is, by necessity Materialist.
B. WHY?
C. Annalistes dealt with the environment
D. Not necessarily ENVIRONMENTALIST, though many environmental historians do have concerns about our world
    -crucial points
E. Unavoidable linkages between human history and the world they inhabit

III. Alfred Crosby and Environmental History

A. American/Global Historian
B. Changing the Columbian Histories/Experience (the "Columbian Exchange")
C. Biological expansion--disease and death
D. Discussion about his summation of Environmental History.  What does it tell us?

IV. Questions to ponder

  1. What type of article is this?
  2. What is the great divide that enabled the proliferation of environmental history?
  3. How does Crosby define environmental history?
  4. What does he have to say about Marxism?
  5. What is the significance of this quote: "[Environmental historians] tend to be more interested in dirt than in perceptions, per se, of dirt.  They have no doubt about the reality of what they deal with, nor about their ability to come to grips with it" (1188).

V. Richard Grove

A. Some personal History
B. Historicizing the environment
C. Questions to ponder...

  1. How does Grove's discussion of "conservationism" resonate with Crosby's definitions?
  2. How was conservation in West Africa affected by "conditions of indirect rule and local autonomy"?
  3. How do religion, tribal politics and traditional land use tie into conservationist politics?
  4. What arguments did local chiefs make regarding the need to protect forests in West Africa?
  5. How does this environmental history affect the history of colonialism?