AMST 251
Discovering New England's Environmental Culture: From Howling Wildernesses to Managed Forests Spring 2014
Division II
Cross-listed ENVI 251
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Williams College was founded in 1793, and in its first century, it was surrounded more by farmland than forest. How did we get from there to here, and why? More broadly, how and why has New England’s material environment–and the way writers, politicians, farmers, and common laborers understood that environment–changed so drastically in the past two hundred years? This course will begin to answer those questions by exploring the historical, literary, and political trends that have defined New England’s environmental culture, from European contact and settlement in the 17th century to the 21st century’s battle over Cape Wind. Topics discussed will include deforestation and reforestation, fishing and overfishing, urbanization and industrialization, and gendered perspectives of the landscape. Key texts include Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs, and Michael Rawson’s award-winning environmental history of Boston.
The Class: Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 25
Expected: 15
Class#: 3997
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: attendance and participation, weekly written responses to readings, two 5-7 page essays, and a final group research assignment (10-12 page essay and presentation)
Prerequisites: none
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ENVI 251 Division II AMST 251 Division II
Attributes: ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
ENVP SC-B Group Electives

Class Grid

Course Catalog Archive Search

TERM/YEAR
TEACHING MODE
SUBJECT
DIVISION



DISTRIBUTION



ENROLLMENT LIMIT
COURSE TYPE
Start Time
End Time
Day(s)