Undergraduate Course: History of the Modern World in 9 Things (HIST10440)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course will offer students an introduction to some of the methods, topics, and historiography of modern environmental history. Students will approach the history of the modern world by focusing on material, ecological, and global histories. Through exploring 9 'things', (mosquitos, cement, the wheat, cattle, cod, guano, barbed wire, uranium, computers) we will discuss the complex interactions between communities and commodities that frequently shape global connections, remaking both space and time. These 'mini-biographies' of different plants, animals and minerals, will allow us to consider how humans have relied on nature to construct the economies and infrastructures of the modern era. |
| Course description |
Through studying 9 'things' in modern history, this course serves as an introduction to environmental history as well as an introduction of how to bring analysis of environments, materials, and place into other forms of history writing. Each week through studying a particular plant, animal or mineral (with a few exceptions) we will consider how these interactions with nature shape our political worlds in the Anthropocene. Over the course of the semester we will ask questions such as, what is the relationship between capitalism and nature? How can commodity histories inform larger histories of social change? How have political events fueled, disrupted and reconstituted certain kinds of global relationships with natural resources? What happens at the 'end of nature'?
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Directors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783). |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the CAHSS Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2018/19, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 42 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
85 %,
Practical Exam
15 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
In-Class Participation (5%)
First Essay 2500 words (35%)
Oral presentation (10%)
Final Essay 3000 words (50%)
|
| Feedback |
Students will receive formative feedback on their first and final essays, and will have an opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment |
| No Exam Information |
|
| Academic year 2018/19, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)
|
Quota: 4 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
85 %,
Practical Exam
15 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
In-Class Participation (5%)
First Essay 2500 words (35%)
Oral presentation (10%)
Final Essay 3000 words (50%)
|
| Feedback |
Students will receive formative feedback on their first and final essays, and will have an opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- through coursework, demonstrate a critical command of the themes and methodology of modern environmental history;
- through coursework, analyse and reflect critically on the work of scholars in the field of environmental history as well as consider how to incorporate environmental history into other historical work;
- through coursework, demonstrate an ability to analyse and interrogate primary source materials concerning global environmental history;
- through coursework, demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in written form;
- through coursework, demonstrate originality, academic integrity, and ability to evaluate the work of their peers.
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Reading List
Abourahme, Nasser. 'Assembling and Spilling-Over: Towards an 'Ethnography of Cement' in a Palestinian Refugee Camp' International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2014.
Bolster, W. Jeffrey, The Mortal Sea: Fishing in the Age of the Sail (Harvard University Press, 2014).
Brown, Kate. Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (Oxford, 2015).
Cronon, William, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, New York: Norton, 1992.
Cushman, Gregory T., Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History (Cambridge, 2014).
Forty, Adrian Concrete and Culture: A Material History (Reaktion Books, 2012).
Mitchell, Timothy 'Can the Mosquito Speak?' from Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity (University of California Press, 2002).
Netz, Reviel, Barbed Wire: An Ecology of Modernity (Wesleyan University Press, 2004).
Kurlansky, Mark, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (New York: Penguin, 1997).
Manning, Richard, 'The Oil We Eat: Following the Foodchain back to Iraq' Harper's Magazine, February, 2004.
McNeill, J.R. Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914 (Cambridge, 2010)
Zoellner, Tom, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World. (Penguin, 2010).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Emily Brownell
Tel:
Email: emily.brownell@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Katy Robinson
Tel: (0131 6)50 3780
Email: krobins3@ed.ac.uk |
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