HIST 406/545

AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Lecturer: Professor Marsha Weisiger

            Office: Breland Hall, Room 247

            Telephone: 646-4037.

            Email: mweisige@nmsu.edu (Note: Use lowercase; there is no “r” in my address)

            Office hours: Wednesdays, 2-4 p.m., or by appt.

            Web site:  http://www.nmsu.edu/~histdept/Weisiger/weisiger.html (then click on Hist 406)

Class Schedule:

            Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30-3:50, Breland 258

If you require any special accommodations due to disability or religion, please let me know within the first three weeks of class. If you have or believe you have a disability and would benefit from any accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, feel free to call Michael Armendariz, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities, at 505-646-6840. All medical information will be treated confidentially. The Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office is located in the Corbett Center, Rm. 244. After you register (or if you are already registered), please make sure that I receive a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD. It is your responsibility to inform either me or an SSD representative in a timely manner if the services or accommodations provided are not meeting your needs. Non-discrimination policy: Feel free to call Jerry Nevarez, Director of Institutional Equity, at 505-646-3635, with any questions you may have about NMSU's Non-Discrimination Policy and complaints of discrimination, including sexual harassment. Religion: If you are Jewish, Muslim, Native American, or a follower of any faith not recognized in the NMSU schedule, please let me know so that I can accommodate your religious practices, as necessary.

Introduction

Environmental history considers how humans and natural environments have interacted and reshaped each other in the past. As we explore the environmental history of agriculture, we’ll follow several paths of inquiry. How have people perceived or imagined the natural world? How have they reshaped and even reordered the natural environment? How has the natural world responded? What have been the intended and unintended consequences of their actions? We’ll also pay special attention to the marks people leave on the physical landscape, and we’ll consider how we might learn more about human history by using those marks as clues.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the semester, you should have:

            ● An understanding some of the major questions posed by environmental history

            ● An understanding of the effects of agriculture on the American landscape

● An ability to critically analyze, discuss, and write about a text

● An understanding of the special methodologies used by environmental historians

Required Texts:

William Cronon, Changes in the Land

Brian Donohue, The Great Meadow

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl

Geoff Cunfer, On the Great Plains

Mark Fiege, Irrigated Eden

Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma

A CD-reader of essays (available from the Language Lab)

Requirements and Grading (UNDERGRADUATES):

All requirements must be completed in order to earn a final grade in this course.

• Précis. Students are required to write a 2-page précis for four of the books. I will provide instructions for the format of the précis, which should include the main theses; the evidence used; and the student’s critique of arguments. The due dates for précis are indicated in the syllabus.
• Reflection papers. Students are required to write a 2-3-page reflection paper on two sets of readings. This paper should reflect on the deeper meanings expressed in those readings. The due dates for these reflections are indicated in the syllabus.
• Two comparative papers. These will be 4-5 page papers comparing the arguments, assumptions, evidence, conclusions, and methodologies of two pairs of books, (1) Changes in the Land and The Great Meadow, and (2) Dust Bowl and On the Great Plains.
• A final paper of roughly 6-7 pages that reflects on the environmental history of agriculture in the United States, based on the semester’s readings.
• Participation and discussion. This is a seminar. It depends on your involvement and that of your fellow classmates. At each class, you will be expected to have critically read all assignments for the day and to discuss and raise questions about them. Always bring each week’s readings to class. For each discussion, one student each week, assigned in rotation, will help facilitate the discussion by raising two or three fruitful questions for discussion. (See instructions below.) Students who arrive late for class, who repeatedly leave early, or who miss more than three class meetings may be dropped from the course at the instructor’s discretion, without consultation.

All papers should be full pages, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and a 12-point font.

Grade Breakdown

Book précis                                         100 pts.          

Reflection papers                                   50 pts.

Comparative essays                             100 pts.          

Discussion participation                      100 pts.          

Final paper                                         100 pts.          

Total possible points                           450

            Grading Scale (Undergraduates):

            405-450 = A

            360-404 = B

            315-359 = C

            270-314 = D

            <270 = F

Requirements and Grading (GRADUATES):

All requirements must be completed in order to earn a final grade in this course.

• Précis. Students are required to write a 2-page précis for each book and for selected articles and additional readings. I will provide instructions for the format of the précis, which should include the main theses; the evidence used; and the student’s critique of arguments. The due dates for précis are indicated in the syllabus.
• Reflection papers. Students are required to write a 2-3-page reflection paper on two sets of readings. This paper should reflect on the deeper meanings expressed in those readings. The due dates for these reflections are indicated in the syllabus.
• Two comparative papers. These will be 4-5 page papers comparing the arguments, assumptions, evidence, conclusions, and methodologies of two pairs of books, (1) Changes in the Land and The Great Meadow, and (2) Dust Bowl and On the Great Plains.
• A research paper. For this paper, you will select a fruit, vegetable, or other agricultural commodity (e.g., cotton, orange, wheat, avocado). Trace and interpret its environmental history, including its origins, its importation to the United States, its production as it’s changed over time, and the effects of production on the natural world. This paper should be 15-20 pages long.
• Participation and discussion. This is a seminar. It depends on your involvement and that of your fellow classmates. At each class, you will be expected to have critically read all assignments for the day and to discuss and raise questions about them. Always bring each week’s readings to class. For each discussion, one student each week, assigned in rotation, will help facilitate the discussion by bringing two or three fruitful questions to class for discussion. (See instructions below.) Students who arrive late for class, who repeatedly leave early, or who miss more than three class meetings may be dropped from the course at the instructor’s discretion, without consultation.

Grade Breakdown

Book précis                             150 pts.

Reflection papers                       50 pts.

Comparative essays                 100 pts.

Discussion participation           100 pts.

Research paper                                    100 pts.                      

Total possible points               500

            Grading Scale (Graduates):

            450-500 = A

            400-449 = B

            350-399 = C

            300-349 = D

            <300 = F

Class Policies:

·         Honor. Absolutely no academic dishonesty will be tolerated in this course. Plagiarism is defined as representing someone else’s work as your own. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, submitting papers or reports that have been prepared by someone else, copied from someone else (including books, encyclopedias, and websites), or downloaded from the Internet, in part or in whole. Even with a citation, failure to put quotation marks around direct quotations also constitutes plagiarism, because it implies that the writing is your own. Material should either be paraphrased or clearly designated as a quotation. Note that replacing words with synonyms, changing verb tense or other minor alterations do not qualify as paraphrasing. All parties involved in the submission of plagiarized or copied work are equally guilty of academic misconduct under all circumstances. Any student discovered plagiarizing will receive an F for the course, end of story.

·         Make-up.  I do not accept graded course work after the class period for which the assignment is due. I do not accept emailed assignments (NO EXCEPTIONS); please plan ahead so that you successfully print your work before class. “Make up” exams and late essays will be accepted, at my discretion, only for a documented excused absence due to illness, death or severe illness in your family, an unavoidable calamity, or a documented school-sponsored activity in which you are officially representing NMSU. No other excuses will be accepted, period. If you anticipate an absence that does not fall within this make-up policy, I always accept assignments early.

·         Withdrawal. No incompletes will be given. It is the student’s responsibility to withdraw him- or herself from the course.

Discussion Participation: 

This is a seminar, and your participation is key to the success of the class. Think of our discussions as lively conversations about issues of mutual interest to all of us, and engage in our weekly conversations in that spirit. The purpose of these conversations is to explore, analyze, and reflect on the arguments made in the readings, the evidence they use to support those arguments, and the wisdom the authors impart (or the lack thereof). The other purpose is to explore your own ideas about the issues raised in the readings. Come prepared to express your ideas and have them challenged by others.

There are four ground rules for discussion:  1) Come prepared for each class by critically reading all the assigned materials. Always bring each week’s readings to class. 2)  You must participate in our weekly conversations with thoughtful discussion. 3)  Do not try to lead the conversation astray in an effort to cover your lack of preparedness. 4)  Show respect for your classmates’ ideas, even (or especially) when they are different from your own.

For each set of readings, I will ask one of you to develop a set of two or three questions that you propose for discussion. You must e-mail them to me or drop them off at her office by 1 p.m. on Tuesday of that week. These should be broad questions that will help us explore the readings’ main themes, arguments, and methods.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Week 1:          Introduction

Th • (Aug. 23): Thinking about environmental history SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1

Week 2:          The Beginnings of Agriculture

T • (Aug. 28):  Daniel Hillel, Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil, pp. 23-54                                (reader)

Th • (Aug. 30): Daniel Hillel, Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil, pp. 55-87                              (reader)

                           Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” Discover Magazine, May 1987. http://www.age.uiuc.edu/classes/tsm311/Diamond-Opinion.pdf

Additional readings for grad students:

Worster, Donald. Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History. Journal of American History 76(1990): 1087. Available through JSTOR: http://links.jstor.org/

            Précis due (graduate students only)

Week 3:          English Colonization of America

T • (Sept. 4): Cronon, Changes in the Land, preface, Chapters 1-3, 8

            Précis due (all students)

Th • (Sept. 6): Cronon, Changes in the Land, Chapters 4-7

Week 4:          Controlling Water

T • (Sept. 11): William deBuys, River of Traps, pp. 1-39 (reader)

            Screening of Nuestras Acequias (if available)

Th • (Sept. 13): deBuys, River of Traps, pp. 185-215 (reader)

            Reflection paper due (all students)

Additional readings for grad students:

Mart A. Stewart, “Rice, Water, and Power: Landscapes of Domination and Resistance in the Low Country, 1790-1880,” Environmental History Review 15 (1991): 47-64. (Reader)

Week 5:          Colonial Agriculture: Rebuttal

T • (Sept. 18): Donohue, The Great Meadow, Chapters 1-3, 9

Th• (Sept. 20): Donohue, The Great Meadow, 4-8

Comparative paper #1 due

Week 6:          Seeds of Change

T • (Sept. 25): NO CLASS

Th• (Sept. 27): Michael Pollan, “The Apple,” from Botany of Desire, pp. 1-58 (reader)

Week 7:          Thinking About History and Narrative

T • (Oct. 2):  William Cronon, “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative,” Journal of American History 78 (March 1992): 1347-76. Available through JSTOR. https://catalog2.nmsu.edu:2131/view/00218723/

Th • (Oct. 4): NO CLASS

Additional readings for grad students:

William Cronon, Chapter 3, “Pricing the Future: Grain,” in Nature’s Metropolis, pp. 97-147(on reserve)

            Précis due (graduate students only)

Week 8:          The Great Plains

T • (Oct. 9): Worster, Dust Bowl, Introduction, Chapters 1-3, Epilogue

            Précis due (all students)

Th • (Oct. 11): Worster, Dust Bowl, Chapters 4-8, 11-14

Week 9:          Unintended Consequences

T • (Oct. 16):  America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie (documentary)

Th • (Oct. 18): The Plow that Broke the Plains and The River (documentaries)

Additional reading for grad students:

Mark Fiege, "The Weedy West:  Mobile Nature, Boundaries, and Common Space in the Montana Landscape." Western Historical Quarterly (Spring 2005):22-47. (reader)

Week 10:        Dust Bowl: Rebuttal

T • (Oct. 23): Cunfer, On the Great Plains, Chapters 1-3, 9

Th • (Oct. 25): Cunfer, On the Great Plains, Chapters 4-8

            Comparative paper #2 due

Week 11:        Toward a Land Ethic

T • (Oct. 30):  Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” from A Sand County Almanac, pp. 217-241.                               (reader)

Th • (Nov. 1): Wendell Berry, “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” and “The Pleasures of Eating,” from The Art of the Common-Place, pp. 305-327. (reader)

            Reflection paper due on both sets of essays, all students

Week 12:        Reclaiming the Land?

T • (Nov. 6): Fiege, Irrigated Eden, Introduction, Chapters 1-3, Conclusion

            Précis due (all students)

Th • (Nov. 8): Fiege, Irrigated Eden, Chapters 4-6

Week 13:        Agricultural Bodies

T • (Nov. 13): Douglas C. Sackman, “‘Nature’s Workshop’: The Work Environment and Workers’ Bodies in California’s Citrus Industry, 1900-1940,” Environmental History 5 (2000): 27-53 (reader)

Th • (Nov. 15): NO CLASS

NOVEMBER 19-23   THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 14:        Industrialized Agriculture

T • (Nov. 27): Pollan, The Omnivore’s Delimma, Introduction, Chapter 1

            Précis due (all students)

Th • (Nov. 29): Pollan, The Omnivore’s Delimma, Chapter 2

Week 15:        Reflections

T • (Dec. 4): Linda Nash, "The Fruits of Ill-Health: Pesticides and Workers' Bodies in Post-World War II California." Osiris 19 (2004): 203-219. (Reader)

Th • (Dec. 6):  Lessons learned

Week 16:        Finals week

            Final papers due (undergraduate and graduate students)