Course Info

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Course Info for HIST - 219 - 01, Fall 2023
Class number: 2365 Title: Planet Earth Department: History
Career: Undergraduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 24 Current enrollment: 24 Available seats: 0
Start date: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 End date: Thursday, December 21, 2023 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: MWF: 12:00PM-12:50PM, MC - AUD Instructor(s): Cocco, Sean
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities and Global Requirements
Note: 6 seats reserved for first-years, 8 seats for sophomores, 6 seats for juniors.
Course Description:
This course explores the effect of the natural world on human history and of humans on the natural world. Our focus is on the earth as a global system. We begin with a consideration of human and natural histories in deep time, well before the written record, and offer an argument for why those histories matter. We then examine how the historical past can be understood in the context of these planetary themes, reframing familiar events in ancient and modern history by highlighting major natural changes that accompanied them, such as the redistribution of plants and animals, the fluctuation of climate, and the development of planet-altering technologies. The course culminates in a consideration of the future planetary conditions that past and present actions may cause.