Resources and Regimes: Environmental His

Environmental historical research began to intensify in the 1960s to interpret human history through the lens of historical and ecological processes. This framework of interpretation gained impetus with the growing concerns of environmental degradation, pollution, and man-induced climate change. The course is intended to demonstrate the intricate relationship and the intertwined nature of societies with their environments using case studies and examples from Central Europe. Firstly, there will be a review of how environmental history thinks of processes in the disciplines and sub-disciplines that have developed and what approaches exist in the field to human-nature relations. Then sources the discipline utilizes will be overviewed. Classes then look at the formation of water management systems, forest utilization the exploitation of soil and mineral goods, and the impact of the different political, economic, and social changes on the landscapes from the period of state formations in the region (ca. tenth – eleventh centuries) to the change of regimes at the turning of the 1980s and the 1990s. While the main focus will be on the long-term changes, case studies look at short-term environmental processes – floods, droughts, sea surges, tornadoes, epidemic diseases – to introduce concepts of resilience and vulnerability.