Environmental history is always about human interaction with the natural world or, to put it in another way, it studies the interaction between culture and nature. The principal goal of environmental history is to deepen our understanding of how humans has been affected by the natural environment in the past and also how they have affected that environment and with what results. This is called the bilateral approach of environmental history (Smout 1993: xiii.; Verstegen & van Zanden 1993: 11). The most common definition of environmental history is as follows: environmental history is studying the interaction between humans and the environment in the past. To study the relationships between humans and the surrounding world, we must try to understand how the interaction between the two works. —qtd. from Oosthoek, K.J.W. at www.eh-resources.org
“Environmental history provides an indispensable long-term perspective on change. Important concepts like socio-economic sustainability, the maintenance of biodiversity and climate change are meaningless unless viewed in context. In a new millennium where profound environmental problems are becoming increasingly pressing, and decision-making more critical, this perspective will become even more essential. What is seen through contemporary eyes as abrupt and unpredictable becomes cyclic and comprehensible when viewed at appropriate timescales.
The past can also be searched for analogies to current and future developments, and, although by no means precisely replicable, the potential pattern of future change can be defined. Equally importantly, society’s responses to pressures and the rationale behind past decision-making are there for us to understand and learn from — public opinion and the willingness to change patterns of behaviour are just as important for future environmental good practice as understanding the scientific mechanisms of environmental change. Environmental history, which integrates both historical and scientific datasets when providing this long-term perspective, will, ultimately, provide the why as well as the how of environmental change.” – From Research Centre for Environmental History and Policy at University of Sterling, Scotland
Types of Questions Asked
- How are our mental perceptions, ethics, laws, myths and other intellectual constructions related to the “natural” world?
- How do our ideas influence our economies, policies and politics which all exist in, and in relation to the “natural” world?
- How do the impact of our actions on the “natural” world create a feedback loop that, in turn, affects our ideas, policies and politics?
Subfields
“Environmental history is an interdisciplinary subject. That means that historians, scientists and other scholars must look over the boundaries of their own subject. The historian must be aware that he or she sometimes needs to apply some principles from the natural sciences, such as ecology, biology and forestry, to understand what happened in the past.” qtd. from Oosthoek, K.J.W. at www.eh-resources.org
- Environmental History examines the stories of:
- Climate, Weather, and Disease Patterns
- Food, Agriculture, and Water
- The effect of agriculture on soils and landscapes
- Impacts of Mining, Forestry, Transportation,
- The consequences of Urbanization and Industrialization
- Environmental Politics
- Environmental Justice
- Discovery and Colonialism
- Human Exploitation of the Natural World
Groups
American Society for Environmental History
- “The American Society for Environmental History (ASEH), founded in 1977, seeks to promote scholarship and teaching in environmental history, to support the professional needs of its members, and to connect its undertakings with larger communities. The ASEH aspires to advance a greater understanding of the history of human interaction with the rest of the natural world, to foster dialogue between humanistic scholarship, environmental science, and other disciplines, and to support global environmental history efforts that benefit the public as well as the general scholarly community.” – from their site.
- http://www.aseh.net/
European Society for Environmental History
- The European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) is a scholarly society that was founded in 1999 to promote environmental history in Europe, by encouraging and supporting research, teaching and publications in the field. The Society aims to stimulate dialogue between humanistic scholarship, environmental science and other disciplines. It welcomes members from all disciplines and professions who share its interest in past relationships between human culture and the environment.
- http://eseh.org/
Research Centre for Environmental History and Policy at University of Sterling, Scotland
- The University of Stirling Research Centre for Environmental History and Policy was established in October 2006. It builds on the work of two previous research centres: the AHRC Research Centre for Environmental History and the Centre for Environmental History and Policy, funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. Though situated within the Department of History at Stirling, the Centre is fundamentally interdisciplinary in both concept and practice. Its research involves input from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, including History, Environmental Science, Philosophy and Economics. It is also our intention to build links with any discipline which looks at the relationship between human society and the environment in the past.
- http://www.cehp.stir.ac.uk/
Boston Environmental History Seminar
- The Boston Environmental History Seminar is an academic forum for scholars as well as interested members of the public to discuss aspects of American environmental history.
- http://www.masshist.org/events/behs.cfm
Centre for World Environment History
- Although global in its expertise and aims, the CWEH specialises in the environmental history of the tropics. It is the only Centre in Britain and Europe with the capability to do so. As a distinctive named discipline Environmental History is a relatively young subject, which has roots in historical geography, historical ecology and the history of material culture. It draws widely from the sciences, social sciences and the humanities.
- http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cweh/1-2-4.html
Latin American Environmental History
- A vast reference project cataloging that attempts to track the study of Environmental History as it relates to Latin America. The website includes a searchable database, comprehensive bibliography, syllabi, and other links.
- http://www.csulb.edu/projects/laeh/
Prominent Academic Programs
Institute for Environmental History, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom
University of Sterling, Scotland, United Kingdom
Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Australia
University of Darmstadt, Germany
University of California, Davis, USA
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
University of Montana, Bozeman, USA
University of Kansas
University of Madison-Wisconsin
Books
- Atkins, Peter, Ian Simmons and Brian Roberts, People, Land and Time. An Historical Introduction to the Relations between Landscape, Culture and Environment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). http://powells.com/biblio/65-9780340677148-0
- Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring (Cambridge, Mass. : Riverside Press, 1962)http://powells.com/biblio/1-9780618249060-6
- Croon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003) http://powells.com/biblio/1-9780809016341-1
- De Steiguer, J. E. The Origins of Modern Environmental Thought (Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 2006) http://powells.com/biblio/2-9780816524617-0
- Dunlap, Thomas R., Nature and the English Diaspora: Environment and History in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (New York/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) http://powells.com/biblio/62-9780521657006-1
- Hughes, Donald J, An Environmental History of the World (New York: Routledge, 2001) http://powells.com/biblio/61-9780415136198-1
- Hughes, J. Donald, What is Environmental History? (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006) http://powells.com/biblio/61-9780745631899-1
- Mcneill, J.R., Something New Under the Sun. An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century (London: Penguin, 2000) http://powells.com/biblio/1-9780140295092-0
- Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (New York: HarperOne, 1990) http://powells.com/biblio/7-9780062505958-1
- Nash, Roderick, Wilderness and the American Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) http://powells.com/biblio/7-9780300091229-1
- Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 1962-1999 (New York: Hill & Wang, 1993) http://powells.com/biblio/1-9780809015511-9
- Simmons, I.G., An Environmental History of Great Britain from 10,000 Years Ago to the Present (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001)http://www.amazon.co.uk/Environmental-History-Great-Britain-Present/dp/0748612831
- Steinberg, Ted, Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002) http://powells.com/biblio/71-9780195331820-0
- Tal, Alon, Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002) https://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9780520234284-1
- Worster, Donald, The Ends of the Earth. Essays in Modern Environmental History(Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press,1988), 'Doing environmental history', pp. 289-308. https://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780521348461-5
Other Resources
Environmental History Bibliography, comprised of more than 2000 titles covering European environmental history from 1976 to present.
Extensive bibliography on American environment history and categorized by geographical region.
Nature Transformed: The Environment in American History
- This website offers numerous essays, categorized under the headings of “Native Americans and the Land” to “Wilderness and the American Identity” and “The Use of the Land.”
- http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/nattrans.htm
Historiography Series in Global Environmental History:
- A collection of ten historiographies that each relate to the development of environmental history in differing parts of the world.
- http://www.h-net.org/~environ/historiography/historiography.html
Journals
Environmental History
- “Environmental History is the leading journal in the world for scholars, scientists, and practitioners who are interested in following the development of this exciting new field.EH carries international articles that portray human interactions with the natural world over time.
- Environmental History is an interdisciplinary quarterly publication. Insights from history, geography, anthropology, the natural sciences, and many other disciplines are included.” – from their website
- http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/EH/index.html
Environment and History
- Environment and History is an interdisciplinary journal which aims to bring scholars in the humanities and biological sciences closer together, with the deliberate intention of constructing long and well-founded perspectives on present day environmental problems.
- http://www.erica.demon.co.uk/EH.html
Global Environment. Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences.
- Global Environment is a new half-yearly journal and aims to combine the environment and world history, with special regard to the modern and contemporary ages. The journal aims to bring together different areas of expertise in the natural and the social sciences as well as the humanities to help them find a common language and a common perspective in the study of history in connection with environmental change. It publishes articles, book reviews, interviews, scientific projects, political documents, bibliographies on the environment and world history, with special regard to the modern and contemporary periods.
- http://www.globalenvironment.it/
Forest History Today – published by the Forest History Society
- The Forest History Society (FHS) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational institution that links the past to the future by identifying, collecting, preserving, interpreting, and disseminating information on the history of interactions between people, forests, and their related resources -- timber, water, soil, forage, fish and wildlife, recreation, and scenic or spiritual values. Through programs in research, publication, and education, the Society promotes and rewards scholarship in the fields of forest, conservation, and environmental history while reminding all of us about our important forest heritage.
- http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/FHT/index.html
free via iTunesU
Exploring Environmental History Podcasts
List of films compiled by H-Environment members that relate to environmental history.
Articles
- Coates, Peter, 'Clio's New Greenhouse', History today, 46, 8 (1996) 15-22
- Hughes, J.D., "Global Environmental History: The Long View", Globalizations, Vol. 2 No. 3, 2005, 293-208.
- Lowenthal, David, 'Environmental History: From Genesis to Apocalypse', History Today, 51, 4 (2001) 36-44.
- Mahong, Bao, "Environmental History in China", Environment and History, Volume 10, Number 4, November 2004, pp. 475-499
- McNeill, J.R, 'Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History',History and Theory, 42 (December 2003), 5-43.
- O'Connor, James. "What is Environmental History? Why Environmental History?"Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 8, no.2 (June 1997): 1-27.
- Steyn, Phia, "The lingering environmental impact of repressive governance: the environmental legacy of the apartheid-era for the new South Africa", Globalizations, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2005, 391-403
- Williams, M., 'The relations of environmental history and historical geography', Journal of Historical Geography, 20 (1994) 3-21.
