Big Business, the Bomb, and Smokey Bear: Cold War Origins of Today's Environmental Movement

Spring 2009 AMCV 1903R S01

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Please check the Detailed Class Information for up to date information about this course.

Information on meeting times for this course can be found on Course Schedule at http://selfservice.brown.edu

Course Description

Beginning with the psychological, cultural, and environmental changes brought by the Atomic Bomb, this seminar traces Americans' growing environmental awareness and concern with corporate power. We will look at classics like Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, as well as films, poetry, popular texts, and histories complicating traditional notions of the origins and conduct of the contemporary environmental movement. Students will have the opportunity to explore an aspect of environmentalism or the environment in depth through a semester writing project.

Assignments and Grading

Seminar Participation: 25 %
First Paper (3 pages from prompt): 15 %
Term Paper Proposal (2-3 pages): 10%
Research Presentation: 10%
20-page Term Paper: 40%

Readings and Required Texts

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism
Mark W.T. Harvey, Wilderness Forever: Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Andrew G. Kirk, Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism
Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
Julie Guthman, Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California
Eileen McGurty, Transforming Environmentalism: Warren County, PCBs, and the Origins of Environmental Justice
Richard P. Tucker, Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the Tropical World
Course Reading Packet