History 3327 Ï Spring 2025

Earth, Wind, & Fire

Nature & History in America

Professor Mark Stoll

Humanities 454

E-mail: mark.stoll@ttu.edu   Web: https://www.markstoll.net/

Office Hours: Monday 2:00–4:00, Wednesday 12:00–1:00 a.m. and by appointment

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

Through lectures, readings, and film, the course explores two evolving topics in American history: the interrelationship and mutual impact of humans with the land and its plant and animal life; and cultural attitudes and thinking about nature and the environment.

TEXTS

Dan Flores, American Serengeti

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra

Oreskes and Conway, Merchants of Doubt

John Clayton, Natural Rivals

Lauret Savoy, Trace

ASSIGNMENTS

40%

Three midterm exams

20%

Final examination

30%

Six book quizzes

10%

Analytical book review

Exams: Exams will be essay exams. Students will have an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of environmental history as well as to engage issues raised in lectures, discussions, and readings. The final exam will have the same format as midterms, with the addition of a cumulative section.

Book quizzes: Short quizzes given on the discussion day for each book will encourage students to have read the books and be ready to discuss them.

Makeups: Exams or quizzes missed for any reason may be made up on Makeup Day, the last Monday of the semester, in the professor’s office any time between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Papers: Students will write an analytical book review on a book of their choice.
Instructions for the analytical book review: For this review, students will select a book on environmental history from the bibliography of American environmental history on the professor’s Website (excluding edited collections of essays or books required for the course). There is a full bibliography here: http://www.markstoll.net/Bibliographies/US/Environmental. htm. Students may select another book if the professor approves it. The book review will be four to six pages long and have three sections:

1.    A short summary (not a table of contents or outline) of the book’s contents; this should not take more than a paragraph or two.

2.    An explanation of the book’s thesis, with a discussion of how the author has supported the thesis. You can often find a statement of the book’s thesis in its preface, introduction, or conclusion. Reread these sections after you finish your book. (Ask the professor, if you have any doubts. Many students miss or confuse the thesis!)

3.    Most important, an analysis of the book, including how successful it is (or is not!) in supporting its thesis, what the author’s bias (that is, point of view) is, whether it agrees or disagrees with other class material, how it might be improved, how well it is written, and whether you agree with the book’s conclusions. Would you recommend it to others? Give examples to support each point of your analysis.

Papers will be printed in 12-point Times New Roman, double spaced, with 1" margins all around (or 1¼" right and left margins and 1" margins top and bottom). Do not add space between paragraphs (and if your word-processing program does so automatically, adjust the “Paragraph” settings). If you quote directly from the text of your book, cite your source by adding the page number or numbers in parentheses immediately after the quotation. For example:

T.S. Eliot wrote, “That is the way the world ends” (42).

No footnotes or bibliography are necessary. Grammar and punctuation must be correct. For writing advice, the University Writing Center (paid for by your fees!) would be happy to help you polish your writing. They can help you in person or via the Internet and can be reached through their Website: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/provost/uwc/undergraduate/index.php.

 

Attendance: The professor will call roll at the beginning of each class. Students with a perfect attendance record will receive three bonus points on their final grades. Students with more than two absences will receive 1 point off their final grades for each absence over two. The instructor will accept excuses in cases of true need if appropriately documented.

 

Plagiarism: Using text written by someone else (even in a close paraphrase) is academic dishonesty. It is strictly against university and departmental policy. Papers that have been plagiarized in whole or in part receive a 0 for the assignment, and a further penalty of 10 points will be deducted from the student’s final grade average.

A Note on AI: There are two main goals of this course. The first is to familiarize you with the history of interaction of Americans with the natural world. The second goal is to train you in reading texts effectively, understanding them accurately, and writing clearly and thoughtfully. I expect that you will not use any generative artificial intelligence system (like ChatGPT) in your work for this course. Any use of AI-generated work at any stage of writing for this class is a violation of academic integrity. Such systems are often inaccurate, summarize complex materials badly, and make your work worse and less interesting. Using them does not serve your development as a thinker, writer, and scholar.

The purpose of a writing assignment is not to find out what a computer program thinks or to fill the world with yet more words about something. The purpose is to find out what you think, but more than that, it is to prompt you to figure out for yourself what you think and put those thoughts into words in order to clarify your thoughts to yourself and express them to others.

Note also that even a small request from an AI program uses a huge amount of energy and water. It also leads to possible plagiarism.

Here is the official policy of this course: The use of generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) is strictly prohibited in this course for any purpose. Information gathered from AI cannot be used even with appropriate citation. Submission of AI-generated content (i.e., information, text, or images) as your own work is a violation of academic integrity and may result in referral to the Office of Student Conduct. Please contact me if you have questions regarding this course policy.

§  The Department of History adheres to Texas Tech University’s statement and related policies on issues of academic integrity <https://www.depts.ttu.edu/tlpdc/PlagiarismStatement.pdf>.

§  Any student found to be in violation of these policies will be subject to disciplinary action at both the departmental and university levels. At the departmental level, such action may include one or more of the following:

o  a failing grade (F) for the assignment in question

o  a failing grade (F) for the course

o  a written reprimand

o  disqualification from scholarships and/or funding

 

Electronics in the Classroom: Because electronic devices distract both the student and other students around them, all electronic devices must be turned off during class time. That includes use of cell phones or laptops. Students using cell phones in class will be asked to leave and will be counted absent for the day. Laptops may be used only if the instructor gives permission, but students must use the computer for class-related activities only, such as note-taking. This means no e-mail, social media, Internet surfing, video watching, or other non-academic activities. If, during an exam, a student is seen using any electronic device, the exam will be collected immediately at that moment and receive a failing grade.

 

Texas Tech Policies Concerning Academic Honesty, Special Accommodations for Students with Disabilities, Student Absences for Observance of Religious Holy Days, and Accommodations for Pregnant Students:

These statements can be found at this URL: <https://www.depts.ttu.edu/tlpdc/RequiredSyllabusStatements.php>

 


 

SPRING 2025 COURSE SCHEDULE

Jan 15

Introduction

Jan 17

Were Indians environmentalists?

Jan 20

Martin Luther King Day: No class

Jan 22

Were Indians environmentalists? cont.

Jan 24

Ecological Imperialism: Arrival of Europeans

Jan 27

Reading: Flores, American Serengeti

Jan 29

Slavery and the Southern environment

Jan 31

Slavery and the Southern environment, cont.

Feb 3

New England and agricultural improvement; American Romanticism

Feb 5

Transformation of the West: Spanish, Russians, Mormons, and mining

Feb 7

Transformation of the West: Settlement of the Plains

Feb 10

Reading: Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra

Feb 12

First Midterm Exam

Feb 14

Industrialization and the rise of the cities

Feb 17

Industrialization and the rise of the cities, cont.

Feb 19

Urban environmental problems

Feb 21

Urban environmental problems, cont.

Feb 24

Reading: Clayton, Natural Rivals

Feb 26

The Progressive conservation movement: rise of conservation

Feb 28

The Progressive conservation movement: rise of conservation, cont.

Mar 3

The Progressive conservation movement: conservation achieved

Mar 5

The Progressive conservation movement: conservation achieved, cont.

Mar 7

Second Midterm Exam

Mar 10

After the Progressives: The 1920s

Mar 12

After the Progressives: The 1920s, cont.

Mar 14

The New Deal

Mar 17–21

Spring Break

Mar 24

The New Deal, cont.
Book review due

Mar 26

New forces, new fears: radiation

Mar 28

New forces, new fears: radiation, cont.

Mar 31

Reading: Carson, Silent Spring

Apr 2

Dams and wilderness

Apr 4

The 1960s: Johnson and the Great Society and environmental crisis

Apr 7

The 1960s: Johnson and the Great Society and environmental crisis, cont.

Apr 9

Third Midterm Exam

Apr 11

The 1970s: Nixon and the environmental decade

Apr 14

Reading: Oreskes and Conway, Merchants of Doubt

Apr 16

The 1970s: Nixon and the environmental decade, cont.

Apr 18

The 1970s: Carter and the Energy Crisis, Toxic Waste, and Nuclear Power

Apr 21

No class

Apr 23

The 1970s: Carter and the Energy Crisis, Toxic Waste, and Nuclear Power, cont.

Apr 25

The 1980s: Reagan and the End of Bipartisan Environmentalism

Apr 28

Environmental Justice

Apr 30

Reading: Savoy, Trace

May 2

International Solutions to Acid Rain and Ozone Depletion, but Not Global Warming

May 5

A New Environmentalism for the Twentieth Century?

May 6

Makeup day

May 12

Monday, 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.: FINAL EXAM