Seminar in Advanced Historical Study

This seminar is an advanced course in the reading of influential approaches to history, and research on an individual student project. Students will gain familiarity with important trends in American historiography, examine historical method, and undertake work on an historical project of their own choosing, in consultation with the professor. This particular section of History 401 will focus on the close examination of an emerging field of inquiry--Environmental History--in order to trace the ways in which historians have approached their topics of research in a variety of manners. In addition, since we live in Staten Island, we will be focusing on the largely-unwritten environmental history of Staten Island, using local resources and archives to document this unfolding story. The course also aims to familiarize the student with the construction of historical arguments (thesis, methodology, historiography, evidence, sources, research, and narrative), as well as identifying areas for further research.

Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend class meetings and take part in discussions. Written work will require students to synthesize lecture materials as well as readings. Students must also read and assimilate required readings, and be prepared to discuss readings on the schedule given below. Students will submit all assignments on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor. Further, no student with more than three unexcused absences will receive a passing grade for the course.

A Note About Academic Integrity: Integrity is fundamental to the academic enterprise. It is violated by acts such as borrowing or purchasing term papers, essays, reports, and other written assignments; using concealed notes or crib sheets during examinations; copying others' work and submitting it as one's own; and misappropriating the knowledge of others. The sources from which one derives one's ideas, statements, terms, and data must be fully and specifically acknowledged in the appropriate form; failure to do so, intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes plagiarism. Violations of academic integrity may result in failure in the course and in disciplinary actions with penalties such as suspension or dismissal from the College.

Contacting the Professor:

My office is in 2N 222C, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 4:30, and by appointment. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu.

Assignments:

Class Journal (weekly writings about readings) (35% of course grade)--Click here for "Elements of a Monograph"
Class Attendance/Participation (30% of course grade)
Final Research Essay (35% of course grade)--Click here for the list of topics for the research essay.

Required Texts:

    Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962).
    Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire (Urbana: U. of Ilinois Press, 1992).
    Charles L. Sachs, Made On Staten Island: Agriculture, Industry, and Suburban Living in the City (Staten Island: Staten Island Historical Society, 1988).

    William Cronon, "Kennecott Journey: The Paths Out of Town" from Under an Open Sky (1992).
    William Cronon, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History and Narrative," Journal of American History 78, 4 (1992), pp. 1347-76.
    Richard White, "American Environmental History: The Development of a New Historical Field." Pacific Historical Review 54.3 (1985), pp. 297 - 335.
    Donald Worster, ed., "A Round Table: Environmental History," JAH, 76 (1990): 1087-1147.
    William Cronon, "The Uses of Environmental History," Environmental History Review 17.3 (1993), pp. 1-22.
    Donald Worster, "Doing Environmental History," in The Ends of the Earth, pp. 289-307.
    Pierce F. Lewis, "Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Some Guides to the American Scene," in The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays, ed. D. W. Meinig (Oxford University Press, 1979): 11-32.
    D. W. Meinig, "The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene," in The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: 32-48.
    David R. Meyer, "The New Industrial Order," in The Making of the American Landscape, ed. Michael P. Conzen (Routledge, 1994): 249-268.
    Michael P. Conzen, "Ethnicity on the Land," in The Making of the American Landscape: 221-248.
    Edward K. Muller, "The Americanization of the City," in The Making of the American Landscape: 269-92.
    Lynne Page Snyder, "'The Death Dealing Smog over Donora, Pennsylvania': Industrial Air Pollution, Public Health Policy, and the Politics of Expertise, 1948-9," EHR vol. 18 no. 1 (Spring 1994): 117-140.
    Andrew Hurley, "Creating Ecological Wastelands: Oil Pollution in New York City, 1870-1900," Journal of Urban History, 20 (May 1994), 340-64.
    Craig E. Colten, "Industrial Wastes in Southeast Chicago: Production and Disposal, 1870-1970," Environmental Review, 10 (Summer 1986), 93-105.
    Robert Gottlieb, "Ethnicity as a Factor: The Quest for Environmental Justice," in Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement (Island Press, 1993): 235-269.
    Robert W. Lake, "Volunteers, NIMBYs, and Environmental Justice: Dilemmas of Democratic Practice," Antipode 28:2 (1996): 160-74.
    Florence Gardner and Simon Greer, "Crossing the River: How Local Struggles Build a Broader Movement," Antipode 28:2 (1996): 175-192.
    Susan L. Cutter, "Race, Class, and Environmental Justice," Progress in Human Geography 19, 1 (1995): 111-22.

Additional materials for this course are available via the WWW at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/history/dept/lavender/401extra.html

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction
	Monday, February 1	Starting Places
	Wednesday, February 3	Introduction to Environmental History--View Earth and the American Dream in class

Week Two: Environmental History Foundations
	Monday, February 8	Principles of the Field--What is an environment? What makes it historical? Discuss Cronon, "Kennecott Journey" and "A Place for Stories"
	Wednesday, February 10	Field Trip Number One: Exploring The Landscape of CSI (wear warm clothes and shoes that can get muddy)
	Readings: Cronon, "Kennecott Journey" and "A Place for Stories"; Carson, Silent Spring

Week Three: Environmental History's Inspirations
	Monday, February 15	CUNY CLOSED--No Classes
	Wednesday, February 17	Discuss Carson, Silent Spring; view documentary about Rachel Carson in class
	Readings: Carson, Silent Spring

Week Four: Environmental History Historiography
	Monday, February 22	Discuss Historiography Essays
	Wednesday, February 24	Discuss Historiography Essays
	Readings: White, "American Environmental History"; Worster, "A Round Table: Environmental History"; Cronon, "The Uses of Environmental History"; Worster, "Doing Environmental History"

Week Five: Geography of Place
	Monday, March 1	Reading the Landscape; Discuss Lewis, "Axioms for Reading the Landscape"; Meinig, "The Beholding Eye"
	Wednesday, March 3	Landscape-Reading Field Trip (wear warm clothes and shoes that can get muddy)
	Readings: Lewis, "Axioms for Reading the Landscape"; Meinig, "The Beholding Eye"; Using Meinig and Lewis as guidelines, read (and be ready to discuss) any landscape in the vicinity of the College of Staten Island

Discuss Maclean, Young Men and Fire--As a Document of Research

Week Six: Storytelling About Land
	Monday, March 8
	Wednesday, March 10	Discuss Maclean, Young Men and Fire--As a Narrative
	Readings: Maclean, Young Men and Fire.

Week Seven: Industrial Development
	Monday, March 15	Discuss Meyer, "The New Industrial Order"
	Wednesday, March 17	Field Trip Three: Staten Island's Industrial Past
	Readings: Meyer, "The New Industrial Order"

Week Eight: Immigration, Urbanization, and Landscapes
	Monday, March 22	Discuss Conzen, "Ethnicity on the Land" and Muller, "The Americanization of the City"
	Wednesday, March 24	Interview with Dick Dickerson, Borough Historian for the Borough of Staten Island
	Readings: Conzen, "Ethnicity on the Land"; Muller, "The Americanization of the City"

Week Nine: Case Studies in Industrialization and Eastern Urban Environments
	Monday, March 29	Discuss Snyder, "Smog"; Hurley, "Creating Ecological Wastelands"; Colten, "Industrial Wastes in Southeast Chicago"
	Readings: Snyder, "Smog"; Hurley, "Creating Ecological Wastelands"; Colten, "Industrial Wastes in Southeast Chicago"

March 31-April 11--Spring Break, CSI Closed

Week Ten: Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Ethnicity, and the Environment
	Monday, April 12	Discuss Gottlieb, "Ethnicity as a Factor"
	Wednesday, April 14	Discuss Lake, "Volunteers, NIMBYs, and Environmental Justice"; Gardner and Greer, "Crossing the River"; Cutter, "Race, Class, and Environmental Justice"
	Readings: Gottlieb, "Ethnicity as a Factor"; Lake, "Volunteers, NIMBYs, and Environmental Justice"; Gardner and Greer, "Crossing the River"; Cutter, "Race, Class, and Environmental Justice"

Week Eleven: Staten Island--A Case Study
	Monday, April 19	Discuss Sachs, Made On Staten Island
	Wednesday, April 21	Discuss Research Methodologies; Interview with Vincent Sweeney, Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences
	Readings: Sachs, Made On Staten Island

Week Twelve: Final Projects Under Construction
	Monday, April 26	Discussion of Research Plans
	Wednesday, April 28	Class Brainstorming Session, Using Primary Sources
	Readings: Packet of primary sources (to be distributed)

Week Thirteen: Final Projects Under Construction
	Monday, May 3	Individual Meetings with Professor (to be scheduled during course meeting in 2N222C)
	Wednesday, May 5	Individual Meetings with Professor (to be scheduled during course meeting in 2N222C)

Week Fourteen: Final Projects Under Construction
	Monday, May 10	Individual Meetings with Professor (to be scheduled during course meeting in 2N222C)
	Wednesday, May 12	Individual Meetings with Professor (to be scheduled during course meeting in 2N222C)

Week Fifteen: Final Projects
	Monday, May 17	Individual Meetings with Professor (to be scheduled during course meeting in 2N222C)
	Wednesday, May 19	Final Paper Due