Dr. Mark Stoll
Holden Hall 135 -- (806) 742-1004 ext. 250 --
mark.stoll@ttu.edu
Office Hours: Monday through Thursday, 2:00 p.m.-2:30
p.m.
Class Webpage: http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/stoll/
This course explores the origins of the modern American environmental movement in the culture, society, politics, and tumultuous events of the 1960s. Using lecture, discussion, readings, video, and music, the instructor will create the context within which modern environmental concerns and activism first appeared. Environmentalism arose at the height of the Cold War crisis and, like the Chicano, feminist, and gay rights movements, achieved its greatest accomplishments after the civil rights and antiwar movements began to wind down. All of these movements lost steam in the second half of the 1970s, and the Reagan Administration reversed course on them in 1981. Hence, the era from 1945 to 1980 captures all the essential elements and accomplishments of both the Sixties and the environmental movement.
This is a writing intensive course. In addition to completing exams and short papers, students will focus on a particular leader, organization, or aspect of the environmental movement, and produce a research paper that puts that subject into the context of the era.
 | Hal Rothman, Greening of a Nation?: Environmentalism in the United States since 1945 |
| Rachel Carson, Silent Spring |
| Rome, Adam. "'Give Earth a Chance': The Environmental Movement and the Sixties." Journal of American History 90 (September, 2003): 525-554. |
| Pfister, Christian. "The 'Syndrome of the 1950s' in Switzerland: Cheap Energy, Mass Consumption, and the Environment." In Susan Strasser, Charles McGovern, and Matthias Judt, eds. Getting and Spending: European and American Consumer Societies in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 359-377. |
| An optional updated version (in German): Pfister, Christian. "Energiepreis und Umweltbelastung. Zum Stand der Diskussion über das '1950er Syndrom.'" In Wolfram Siemann, ed. Umweltgeschichte: Themen und Perspektiven. Munich: Beck, 2003, 61-86. |
| Harvey, Mark W. T. "Battle for Dinosaur: Echo Park Dam and the Birth of the Modern Wilderness Movement." Montana the Magazine of Western History 45 (Winter, 1995): 32-45. |
| Davis, Jack E. "'Conservation is Now a Dead Word': Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the Transformation of American Environmentalism." Environmental History 8 (January, 2003): 53-76. |
| Hays, Samuel P. "From Conservation to Environment: Environmental Politics in the United States since World War II." Environmental Review 6 (Fall, 1982): 14-41. |
| Lear, Linda J. "Rachel Carson's Silent Spring." Environmental History Review 17 (Summer, 1993): 23-48. |
| Lutts, Ralph H. "Chemical Fallout: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Radioactive Fallout, and the Environmental Movement." Environmental Review 9 (Fall, 1985): 211-225. |
| Garb, Yaakov. "Change and Continuity in Environmental World-View: The Politics of Nature in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring." In Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology, edited by David Macauley. New York: Guilford Press, 1996. 229-256 |
| Hazlett, Maril. "'Woman vs. Man vs. Bugs': Gender and Popular Ecology in Early Reactions to Silent Spring." Environmental History 9 (October 2004):701-729. |
| Stoll, Mark. "Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in Europe and America: A Comparative View of its Reception and Impact" |
| Brick, Howard. Age of Contradiction: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s. New York: Twayne, 1998: Chapter 6, "Systems and the Distrust of Order" |
| Sundquist, James L. Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1968: Chapter 8, "For All, a Better Outdoor Environment." |
| Webb, Melody. "Parks for People: Lyndon Johnson and the National Park System." In Frontier and Region: Essays in Honor of Martin Ridge, edited by Robert C. Ritchie and Paul Andrew Hutton. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997. 121-137 |
| Gould, Lewis L. "Lady Bird Johnson and Beautification." In The Johnson Years, Volume Two: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science, edited by Robert A. Divine. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987. 150-180 |
| Melosi, Martin V. "Lyndon Johnson and Environmental Policy." In The Johnson Years, Volume Two: Vietnam, the Environment, and Science, edited by Robert A. Divine. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987. 113-149 |
| White, Lynn, Jr. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis." Science 155: 3767 (10 March 1967):1203-12. |
| Hardin, Garrett. "The Tragedy of the Commons." Science 162 (December 13, 1968):1243-1248; also available at <http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/index.html> |
| Feenberg, Andrew. "The Commoner-Ehrlich Debate: Environmentalism and the Politics of Survival." In Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology, edited by David Macauley. New York: Guilford Press, 1996. 257-282 |
| Kirk, Andrew. "Appropriating Technology: The Whole Earth Catalog and Counterculture Environmental Politics." Environmental History 6 (July, 2001): 374-394. |
| Barrow, John C. "An Age of Limits: Jimmy Carter and the Quest for a National Energy Policy." In The Carter Presidency: Policy Choices in the Post-New Deal Era, edited by Gary M. Fink and Hugh Davis Graham. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. 158-178. |
| Stine, Jeffrey K. "Environmental Policy during the Carter Presidency." In The Carter Presidency: Policy Choices in the Post-New Deal Era, edited by Gary M. Fink and Hugh Davis Graham. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. 179-201. |
This is a writing-intensive course. Students will take one midterm and a final exam. In addition, students will write an analytical book report on a book they choose from a bibliography of postwar environmental history available at the class Website; and they will write one research paper on a subject relating to the history of the postwar environmental movement.
Style: All written work will be typed, double-spaced 12-point Times Roman (or an equivalent font, such as Times New Roman), with 1" or 1-1/4" margins all around, and page numbers in the margin. Include a cover sheet for the research paper.
Analytical Book Review: Students will select a book on environmental history from a bibliography linked to the course Website. Students may select another book if the professor approves it. Four to six pages long, the book review will have three sections:
Research Paper: Students will research and write a paper of ten to twelve pages on a topic of their choice. In frequent consultation with the professor, students will master the secondary literature and find primary sources on their chosen subject. Students may write on one of the topics below, or come up with a subject on their own in consultation with the professor. Some possible topics include:
| Earth Day 1970 |
| Eisenhower and an environmental issue |
| Kennedy and an environmental issue |
| Johnson and an environmental issue |
| Nixon and an environmental issue |
| Carter and an environmental issue |
| Lady Bird Johnson and the environment |
| The legislative origins of the EPA or other major legislation or government agency |
| The Rockefeller family and the environment |
| Sixties science fiction and the environment (for example, Ursula K. LeGuin or John Brunner) |
| Environmental themes in popular music |
| Environmental themes in film (for example, Chinatown or China Syndrome) |
| A major environmentalist, such as David Brower, Barry Commoner, or Paul Ehrlich |
| An environmental organization, such as the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, or other |
| The Storm King controversy, or environmental litigation |
| The impact of The Population Bomb, The Closing Circle, Limits to Growth, Small is Beautiful, Ecotopia, Whole Earth Catalog, or other important book |
| Resources for the Future |
| The Republican or Democratic Party and an environmental issue |
| The 1973 oil crisis, or the 1979 oil crisis |
| Love Canal, "Valley of the Drums," Times Beach, Missouri, or other toxic waste controversy |
| The Three Mile Island nuclear accident |
| The battle against plans for a specific nuclear power plant, such as Seacaucus or Diablo Canyon |
| Nuclear testing, the environment, and human health (such as Utah residents or nearby Indian tribes) |
| The Vietnam War and the environment (such as the Agent Orange controversy) |
| The relationship of the environmental movement to society or to other movements (antiwar, feminism, etc.) |
| The battle against a dam, such as Echo Park, Grand Canyon, or Tellico |
| The controversy over DDT or another pesticide |
| The rise of the organic farming movement or natural foods stores |
| The counterculture and the environment |
| Communes or the back-to-the-land movement |
| Minorities and the environment |
| The Santa Barbara oil spill |
| One aspect of the fight against water pollution, such as the "death" of Lake Erie or the Hudson River cleanup |
| One aspect of the fight against air pollution, such as the rise and control of smog or the Donora crisis |
| The politics of the energy crisis |
| The "Sagebrush Rebellion" and public lands |
| Controversy over the cross-Florida canal, the Florida airport, or another major Florida development |
| Preserving species or wildlife |
| Making suburbs more environmentally friendly |
| The movement for the development of renewable fuel sources, such as solar or wind power |
| Recycling |
| The fight for auto emission control |
Grading: The final grade will be calculated on the following basis:
| 15% Class participation |
| 15% Midterm exam |
| 20% Final exam |
| 15% Book report |
| 35% Research paper |
Students may optionally submit a re-write of their research papers, due on August 5th at 5:00 p.m., and the average of the grades of the two papers will be entered as the grade for the paper.
Plagiarism: Using text written by someone else (even in a close paraphrase) without clear and unambiguous acknowledgment is academic dishonesty and will result in an "F" for the course.
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 one point off their final grades for each absence over two. The instructor will accept excuses in cases of true need if appropriately documented. Students who leave class early may be counted absent.
| July 6 | Introduction; Postwar America |
| 7 | Cold War;
Placing Environmentalism into Context Discussion: Rome, "'Give Earth a Chance'" |
| 8 | Cold War,
Korea, Arms Race, Spies and McCarthyism Discussion: Rothman, Greening of a Nation?, Introduction, ch. 1 Related NPR story: "Cronkite: 'See it Now' and McCarthy" |
| 11 | Return of Prosperity: Society and Culture in the
1950s Discussion: Pfister |
| 12 | Cultural Discontent; The Civil Rights Movement |
| 13 | Reawakening of Postwar Conservationism Discussion: Rothman, ch. 2; Harvey Film: Cadillac Desert Analytical Book Review Due |
| 14 | Rise of environmental concern in the 1950s; The Transition from Conservation to Environmentalism |
| 15 | Eisenhower Administration; "A New Generation": Discussion: Hays |
| 18 | Discussion: Carson, Silent Spring |
| 19 | Kennedy at Home and Abroad Discussion: Lear, Lutts, Garb, Hazlett, Stoll, Brick |
| 20 | Society and culture in the Sixties Discussion: Rothman, ch. 3 |
| 21 | Midterm Johnson, the Great Society, and the Environment |
| 22 |
The Crises of
Vietnam and the Cities Discussion: Webb; Melosi |
| 25 | Cultural and Political Discontent: SDS, hippies,
Yippies, Black Power, women's lib, gay lib Discussion: Rothman, ch. 4; Gould |
| 26 | Crisis Environmentalism Discussion: White, Hardin |
| 27 | Nixon's America Discussion: Feenberg |
| 28 | Earth Day and the triumph of political
environmentalism, 1969-1973 Discussion: Rothman, ch. 5; Kirk |
| 29 | Watergate;
Society and culture in the 1970s: "The Me
Decade"? Discussion: Rothman, ch. 6 |
| Aug. 1 | Limits to Growth, oil crisis, and the end
of the boom years Research Paper Due |
| 2 | Jimmy Carter and the Politics
of Limits Discussion: Barrow, Stine |
| 3 | A New Era: Reagan and
the Environmentalists Discussion: Rothman, ch. 7-8 |
| 4 | Final Exam |
Note: Students who, because of a disabling condition, may require some special arrangements in order to meet course requirements should contact the instructor as soon as possible to make necessary accommodations. Students should present appropriate verification from the Disabled Students Services in the Dean of Students Office.
The professor reserves the right to change this syllabus at his discretion. Changes will be announced in class and posted at the Web address listed above.
Last updated: Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:51 AM
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