Middlebury

AMST 0295

Across the Great Divide

Across the Great Divide: Science, Humanities, and the American Landscape
The American landscape encompasses a diversity of built and natural environments. In this course, we will survey 200 years of history, using the tools of science and the humanities to understand how people have changed the landscape and how the landscape has shaped its human inhabitants. We will read historical, literary, and scientific works—and employ a variety of archival and aesthetic materials—to explore moments of transformation within four geographic regions: New England, the Midwest, the West, and the South. In so doing, we will arrive at an understanding of the interdependency of cultural and ecological history and the intersections between scientific and humanistic modes of inquiry. Readings will emphasize primary texts, and will include writings by Harriett Beecher Stowe, George Perkins Marsh, and photography by Dorothea Lange and others.
Subject:
American Studies
Department:
Program in American Studies
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
AMR HIS NOR

Sections

Fall 2015

AMST0295A-F15 Lecture (Lloyd, Spears)

Fall 2014

AMST0295A-F14 Lecture (Lloyd, Spears)