- Bill McKibben, ed., American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau
- Ted Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History
- Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia
- Gretel Erlich, The Solace of Open Space
Class Schedule with assignments noted on due date
All classes meet in PAM SR 13
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DATE |
CLASS TOPICS |
READINGS and Electronic Texts |
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19 Jan Double session: Film screening (GM 219) + Class discussion |
- Wandering & Freedom
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- Into the Wild (feature film, 2007) - BBC documentary film, How the Earth Made Us http://vimeo.com/20074359 |
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26 Jan Double session: Film screening (GM 219) + Class discussion |
- Imagining nature - Origins and new beginnings
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- The New World (feature film, 2005) - Thoreau from Walden in American Earth, 9-19 - Helen and Scott Nearing, from, Living the Good Life in American Earth, 318-322 - Leslie Marmon Silko, from Ceremony in American Earth, 582-590 - Steinberg, Down to Earth, Chap 1 |
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2 Feb |
Human Ecology |
- Steinberg, Down to Earth, Chaps 2-4 - William Cronon, “Seasons of Want and Plenty” from Changes in the Land in American Earth, 632-658
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9 Feb |
Nature: Seeing and Telling
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-Walt Whitman, “Song of the Redwood Tree” from Leaves of Grass in American Earth, 65-70 - Steinberg, Down to Earth, Chap 8 - Robert Marshall, from Wintertrip into New Country in American Earth, 225-234 - John Burroughs, “The Art of Seeing Things,” American Earth, 145-159 - Edward Abbey “Polemic Industrial Tourism in the National Parks,” in American Earth, 413-433 - Hudson River School landscape paintings on Classfronter - John Burroughs, “The Art of Seeing Things,” in - Jeremiah Johnson (feature film, 1972; portions shown in class)
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16 Feb |
Ecology and Inspiration: Renewing/Restoring |
- John Perkins Marsh, from Man and Nature in American Earth, 71-80 - Aldo Leopold, from Sand County Almanac in American Earth, 266-294 - Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring in American Earth, 366-376 - Kenneth Boulding, from “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth,” in American Earth, 309-404 - Robinson Jeffers, The Answer in American Earth, 251-252 - Jane Jacobs, from The Death and Life of Great American Cities in American Earth, 359-365
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WINTER BREAK |
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1 Mar |
From Conservation to Environmentalism
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Steinberg, Down to Earth, Chaps 8-9, 15 Dreiser, “A Certain Oil Refinery” in American Earth, 186-191 J. Lelyveld, “Millions Join Earth Day Observances Across the Nation,” in American Earth, 484-489 - Garrett Hardin, from The Tragedy of the Commons, in American Earth, 438-450 - Benton MacKaye, “The Indigenous and the Metropolitan,” from The New Exploration in American Earth, 209-223
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FREE WEEK
Office Hours kept during class time
ESSAY PROPOSAL DUE Friday 11 March 17.00 |
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15 Mar |
Utopia/Dystopia
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Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia, Ursula Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (Listen:) |
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EASTER HOLIDAY
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5 Apr |
Consumption as way of life |
- Steinberg, Down to Earth, Chaps 11-14 - Gifford Pinchot, “Prosperity,” in American Earth, 173-180 Alan Durning, “The Dubious Rewards of Consumption,” in American Earth, 770-780 - BBC documentary, The Men Who Made Us Fat (Episode 2 of 3) https://vimeo.com/44892521 Amory Lovins, Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken? in American Earth, 559-569 |
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12 Apr |
Globalism/Globality |
- Jonathan Schell, from The Fate of the Earth in American Earth, 622-631 - Paul Erlich, from The Population Bomb, in American Earth, 434-437 - Bill McKibben, from The End of Nature in American Earth, 718-724 - Wes Jackson, “Outside the Solar Village: One Utopian Farm,” in American Earth, 595-608 - Steinberg, Down to Earth, Chap 16 - BBC Documentary, How to Feed the Planet (Episode 2 of 3: Should I Eat Meat?) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24ieya_horizon-2014-2015-2-should-i-eat-meat-how-to-feed-the-planet_lifestyle
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19 Apr |
What is left? |
Gretel Erlich, The Solace of Open Spaces |
[*] I reserve the right to make minor alterations in this reading list