Spring Semester 2005 (3 credit hours)
Mon., Wed., & Fri., 10:10-11:00
Plant Science 233

Jim Tantillo, Instructor	Greg Hitzhusen, teaching assistant
Office: 8-A Fernow Hall	Email: geh23@cornell.edu
Email: jat4@cornell.edu	Office: 306 Fernow, 254-8007
	Jamie Skillen, teaching assistant
	Email: jrs76@cornell.edu Office: 306 Fernow, 254-8007

A. OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE

Although offered in the Department of Natural Resources, this course is rooted in the humanities and will cover topics drawn from history, philosophy, literature, and art. Cultural artifacts, which include what William Cronon refers to as “found objects,” are an important source of inspiration and knowledge about humans’ relations to the environment. We will examine art, literature, film, cartoons, paintings, photographs, music, maps, advertising, and other cultural objects in order to better understand nature and culture.

There are no prerequisites for the course. Naturally, the more you bring to it, and the more you put into it, the more you are likely to get out of it. The class will be (I hope) a great deal of fun (as well as a lot of work!); and if the class is to be fruitful each participant will have to contribute a great deal to its success. We will be learning from each other, challenging each other’s assumptions and biases, and raising questions, many of which cannot be easily answered. But that’s what a university education should be all about.

B. EXAMS, PAPERS, AND PARTICIPATION

(1) Exams. We will have a two-part mid-term exam: take home portion given out Wednesday, March 9 (due March 14) and 50 minute in-class exam on Wednesday, March 16. A final exam will be given during final exam period 6 (May 13, 3:00 – 5:30 pm); requests for makeup final exams must be made in writing before April 1. Exams will consist of essay-type questions.

(2) Term Paper. Students will write a 10 - 12 page term paper (approx. 3, 000 words) on a subject to be determined in consultation with the instructor and/or teaching assistant. A term paper prospectus is due on Friday, April 1, 2005. One to three pages, although obviously the more you give us the more we can evaluate. The term paper is due Monday, May 2, 2005. There will be grade penalties for late papers.

(3) I will occasionally assign short in-class writing exercises as well. These are designed to help you develop the writing skills you will need to do well on the essay exams.

(4) Class email list: participation on the class email list is not required but certainly encouraged. Active participation on the email list will be noted and may help contribute to your final grade.

C. GRADING

(1) Mid-term exam: 33%

(2) Final exam: 33%

(3) Term paper: 33%

This is a three credit course and may be taken on an S/U basis.

D. COURSE MATERIALS

Required Books to Buy:

The following books have been ordered at the campus store. You are required to buy the following and bring them to class if needed for discussion.

Berton, Pierre. Niagara: A History of the Falls. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2002.

Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.

Cronon, William, ed. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996.

Dunlap, Thomas R. Saving America's Wildlife: Ecology and the American Mind, 1850-1990. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Hughes, J. Donald. Pan's Travail: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Krech, Shepard. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.Optional Books to Buy:

Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles van Doren. How to Read a Book. Rev. and updated ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.Electronic Reserve:

Other required readings are on electronic reserve through the Cornell library system. You should print these for your own use and bring to class if needed. In addition, a number of optional suggested readings will be placed on electronic reserve throughout the semester.

E. SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

** Required Readings

+ Suggested further readings

(no asterisk) Additional bibliography

WEEK ONE (Jan. 24 - 28) Introduction

** Ellis, Jeffrey C. "On the Search for a Root Cause: Essentialist Tendencies in Environmental Discourse." In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 256-268 plus notes. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

** Proctor, James D. "Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests." In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 269-297 plus notes. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

** Marx, Leo. "Environmental Degradation and the Ambiguous Social Role of Science and Technology." Journal of the History of Biology 25, no. 3 (1992): 449-68 (electronic reserve).

Suggested reading:

+Marx, Leo. "Pastoral Ideals and City Troubles." In The Fitness of Man's Environment, 120-44. New York: Harper Colophon, 1964.

WEEK TWO (Jan. 31 – Feb. 4) Pan's Travail

** Hughes, J. Donald. Pan's Travail: Environmental Problems of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Suggested readings:

+ Kyle, Donald G. Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. London and New York: Routledge, 1998.

Lovejoy, Arthur O., and George Boas. Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity. New York: Octagon Books, 1973.

WEEK THREE (Feb. 7 - 11) Hunters, Poachers, and Medieval Game Laws

**Manning, Roger B. Hunters and Poachers: A Social and Cultural History of Unlawful Hunting in England, 1485-1640. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Introduction, chap. 1, "The Cultural and Social Context," and chap. 3, "The Game Laws" (electronic reserve—NOTE: listed as three separate articles).

** Thiebaux, Marcelle. The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974. Chap. 1, "Literature and the Hunt," pp. 17-58 (electronic reserve).

** Williams, James. “Hunting, Hawking, and the Early Tudor Gentleman,” History Today 53, 8 (Aug. 2003): available online at http://www.geocities.com/katacheson/howardwilliams.html

Suggested readings:

+ http://www.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/hunt/arthur

+Morrow, Don. "Sport as Metaphor: Shakespeare's Use of Falconry in the Early Plays." Aethlon 5, no. 2 (1988): 119-29 (electronic reserve).

WEEK FOUR (Feb. 14 - 18) Romanticism: An Overview

There will be a required evening showing of the Disney movie Bambi this week. We will show the film Tuesday Feb. 15 (location TBA) at 7:30 pm, and again on Thursday Feb. 17 (location TBA) at 7:30 pm. Bring your popcorn!

Monday:

** Lowenthal, David. "The Place of the Past in the American Landscape." In Geographies of the Mind: Essays in Historical Geosophy in Honor of John Kirtland Wright, edited by David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden, 89-117. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976 (electronic reserve).

Wednesday:

** Thoreau, Henry D. "Walking." In Excursions, 154-204. New York: Thomas Crowell, 1913 (electronic reserve).

** Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 69-90 plus notes. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

Friday:

** Cartmill, Matt. A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature through History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993. Chap. 9, "The Bambi Syndrome," pp. 17-58 (electronic reserve).

** Lutts, Ralph H. "The Trouble with Bambi: Walt Disney's "Bambi" and the American Vision of Nature." Forest & Conservation History 36, October (1992): 160-71 (electronic reserve).

Suggested readings:

+ Lovejoy, Arthur O. 1924. “On the Discrimination of Romanticisms.” PMLA, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 39 (2, June): 229-253. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-8129%28192406%2939%3A2%3C229%3AOTDOR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2 .

Campbell, Colin. The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. New York, NY: Basil Blackwell, 1987.

Richards, Robert J. The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Part II. The Wealth of Nature

WEEK FIVE (Feb. 21 - 25) Early Humans on the Continent

** Krech, Shepard. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Suggested reading:

+ Slater, Candace. "Amazonia as Edenic Narrative." In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 114-31; notes on pp. 488-90. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

WEEK SIX (Feb. 28 – March 4) United States Economic and Environmental Development

** Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991. Preface, Prologue, and chaps. 1 – 5.

WEEK SEVEN (March 7 - 11) U.S. Economic and Environmental Development (continued)

Monday/Wednesday:

**Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, chaps. 6 – 8, and Epilogue.
Wednesday/Friday:

** Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. "Anthracite Coal and the Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in the United States." Business History Review 46, no. 2 (1972): 141-81 (electronic reserve).

**Winpenny, Thomas R. "Hard Data on Hard Coal: Reflections of Chandler's Anthracite Thesis." Business History Review 53, no. 2 (1979): 247-58 (electronic reserve).

** Stradling, David, and Peter Thorsheim. "The Smoke of Great Cities: British and American Efforts to Control Air Pollution, 1860-1914." Environmental History 4, no. 1 (1999): 6-31 (electronic reserve).

Mid-term exam: the mid-term take-home essay will be handed out on Wednesday, March 9 and is due in class at 10:10 on Monday, March 14. There will be grade penalties for late take home essays. The mini-essay portion will be held in-class on Wednesday, March 16 at 10:10. Note: the readings from Week Eight will not be included on the mid-term exam.

WEEK EIGHT (March 14 - 18) Art, Literature, and Film

** Hall, Lawrence Sargent. "The Ledge." In River Gods & Spotted Devils, edited by John Culler and Chuck Wechsler, 129-46. Camden, SC: LiveOak Press, 1988 (electronic reserve).

Suggested readings:

+ Brooks, Winfield. "The Shining Tides." In River Gods & Spotted Devils, edited by John Culler and Chuck Wechsler, pp. 1-27. Camden, SC: LiveOak Press, 1988 (electronic reserve).

Faulkner, William. Big Woods: The Hunting Stories. New York: Random House, 1955.

Huffman, Alan. Ten Point: Deer Camp in the Mississippi Delta. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1997.

Sklar, Robert. 1994. Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. 2nd, revised ed. New York: Vintage.

Spring Break (March 19 - 27)

WEEK NINE (March 28 – April 1) Saving Nature: Niagara Falls

Note that term paper proposals are due on Friday April 1.

** Berton, Pierre. Niagara: A History of the Falls. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2002.

** Spirn, Anne Whiston. "Constructing Nature: The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted." In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 91-113; notes on pp. 482-88. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

WEEK TEN (April 4 – 8) Saving America's Wildlife

** Dunlap, Thomas R. Saving America's Wildlife: Ecology and the American Mind, 1850-1990. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Preface, Chapters 1-4, pp. ix-61.

**Warren, Louis. “The Killing of Seely Houk,” chap. 1 in The Hunter’s Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 21-47 plus notes 186-191 (electronic reserve).

**Warren, Louis, “Boon and Bust: Pennsylvania’s Deer Among Sportsmen and Farmers,” chap. 2 in The Hunter’s Game, pp. 48-70 plus notes 191-194 (electronic reserve).

Suggested readings:

+ Isenberg , Andrew C. "The Returns of the Bison: Nostalgia, Profit, and Preservation." Environmental History 2, no. 2 (1997): 179-96 (electronic reserve).

+ Jones, Susan. "Becoming a Pest: Prairie Dog Ecology and the Human Economy in the Euroamerican West." Environmental History 4, no. 4 (1999): 531-52 (electronic reserve).

WEEK ELEVEN (April 11 - 15) Saving America’s Wildlife (continued)

** Dunlap, Thomas R. Saving America's Wildlife: Ecology and the American Mind, 1850-1990. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Chapters 5-11, Epilogue, pp. 65-176.

** Barbour, Michael G. “Ecological Fragmentation in the Fifties.” In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon, 233-255; notes on pp. 510-514. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

WEEK TWELVE (April 18 - 22) The Sixties: Modern Environmentalism Emerges

** Readings to be assigned

Part IV. Conclusion: Environmental Philosophy and Other "Problems"

WEEK THIRTEEN (April 25 - 29) Do Mountains Exist?

** Mark, David M., and Barry Smith. 2003. “Do Mountains Exist? Towards an Ontology of Landforms.” Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 30 (3, May): 411-427 (electronic reserve) and available from http://wings.buffalo.edu/philosophy/faculty/smith/articles/Mountains.pdf .

** Haldane, John. "Admiring the High Mountains: The Aesthetics of Environment." Environmental Values 3 (1994): 97-106 (electronic reserve).

** Schiappa, Edward. "Towards a Pragmatic Approach to Definition: "Wetlands" and the Politics of Meaning." In Environmental Pragmatism, edited by Andrew Light and Eric Katz, 209-30. New York: Routledge, 1996 (electronic reserve).

Suggested reading:

Nicolson, Marjorie Hope. 1959. Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Stamos, David N. 2003. The Species Problem: Biological Species, Ontology, and the Metaphysics of Biology. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Term Papers Due: Monday, May 2, 2005 at 10:10 am

WEEK FOURTEEN (May 2 - 6) Science, Ecology, and Environmental Values

** Shrader-Frechette, K. S., and Earl D. McCoy. "How the Tail Wags the Dog: How Value Judgments Determine Ecological Science." Environmental Values 3 (1994): 107-20 (electronic reserve).

**Peretti, Jonah H. "Nativism and Nature: Rethinking Biological Invasion." Environmental Values 7 (1998): 183-92 (electronic reserve).

** Sagoff, Mark. "The Allocation and Distribution of Resources," in The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law, and the Environment, Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy. 50-73 plus notes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988 (electronic reserve).

Suggested readings:

+ Botkin, Daniel B. Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

+ Budiansky, Stephen. Nature's Keepers: The New Science of Nature Management. New York: Free Press, 1995.

+ Nelson, R. J. "Ethics and Environmental Decision Making." Environmental Ethics 1, no. 3 (1979): 263-78 (electronic reserve).

+ O'Riordan, Timothy, and Andrew Jordan. "The Precautionary Principle in Contemporary Environmental Politics." Environmental Values 4 (1995): 191-212 (electronic