Please write 4-5 pages on ONE of the following questions, incorporating specific information from course readings and slide presentations to support your statements. (I’ve listed the course readings/presentations you can use in the additional materials sections, so be sure to take a look at those files, please contact me if you need more files as I could only upload 10!)
1. Between the 1630s and 1930s, a succession of revolutionary forcesCapitalism, Industrialism, Romanticism–reshaped the environment of North America. Please discuss the environmental impact of each of these forces, using specific information and examples from at least three course readings and two slide presentations to support your observations.
2. The syllabus for History 383 states that the course examines “the history of the interaction of humans with the natural environment.” But much of what we have studied concerns the interaction of humans of different classes, races, ethnicities, and genders with one another. Please discuss how social conflicts emerged in efforts to reshape the environment between the 1630s and 1930s, using specific information and examples from at least three course readings and two slide presentations to support your observations.
3. In 1910, Gifford Pinchot outlined his Principles of Conservation. Nearly 40 years later, Aldo Leopold concluded that Conservation is paved with good intentions which prove to be
futile, or even dangerous, because they are devoid of critical understanding either of the land, or of economic land use. (Land Ethic, p. 263) Based on your understanding of American environmental history between the 1630s and 1930s, why have movements for conservation not been more successful? Why did Leopold consider their efforts futile? In addition to Leopold, using specific information and examples from at least two other course readings and two slide presentations to support your observations. Note: a link to the complete Leopold “Land Ethic” essay is on the course Moodle site under week 8.
4. In The Trouble With Wilderness, (1996), environmental historian William Cronon warned that throughout American history, ideas of wilderness have been escapist, reproducing a dangerous dualism that sets humans outside of nature and posing a serious threat to responsible environmentalism (17) . The following year, in The Wilderness of History, (1997) Donald Worster attacked Cronons views as undermining efforts to preserve wild places. Based on your reading of US environmental history between the 1630s and 1930s, do you believe that ideas of “wilderness” helped or hindered movements to protect the environment and encourage Americans to live more sustainably? In addition to the Cronon and Worster articles, please use specific information from at least one other course reading and two slide presentations to support your argument.
Grading Rubric:
This assignment is worth a total of 40 points.
Mechanics (10 points): 1) papers are double-spaced with a one-inch margin on all sides; 2) papers correctly cite the source of any direct quotations using parentheses within the text (Cronon, p. 12), and a full bibliographic reference at the end and 3) papers are absolutely free of grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors. Proofreading is your responsibility!
Argument and Organization (10 points): 1) papers have a definite introductory paragraph stating what you intend to say; 2) each subsequent paragraph has a topic sentence and two or more sentences with specific evidence from course readings or class presentations to support it; 3) each paragraph follows logically from the one that precedes it; and 4) papers have a definite concluding paragraph summarizing what you said.
Content (20 points): papers incorporate materials from at least three course readings and two slide presentations to demonstrate that you have a solid grasp of their meaning and relationship to course themes and American environmental history as a whole.
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