This seminar takes as its starting point the observation made by environmental historians that cheap energy, namely that supplied by fossil fuels, is at the root of our modernity. Over the course of the term, we will explore the ways in which energy courses through our lives and societies and shapes class, race, and environmental politics. Topics will span various aspects of energy history, including: the ecological and racial politics of uranium mining on Navajo lands and nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific; the intensive class conflict in the heart of the coal industries of Pennsylvania and West Virginia; and the international politics of American oil interests in the Middle East and Latin America. Our readings will be pointedly interdisciplinary, drawing on environmental history, poetry and literature, cultural studies, and political history. Participation is a equirement of this course.
TEXTS
Jeff Goodall, Big Coal
Daniel Horowitz, Jimmy Carter and the Energy Crisis
Karen Merrill, The Oil Crisis of 1973-74
David Nye, Consuming Power (Optional)
Paul Sabin, Crude Politics
Ted Steinberg, Nature Incorporated
Richard White, The Organic Machine
Robert Vitalis, America's Kingdom
GRADING
25% Participation
25% Midterm
25% Final Examination
25% Final Project and Presentation
ASSIGNMENTS
Final Project and Presentation
Midterm
Final Examination
Other
2/7: Preindustrial Energies: Oxen, Whales, and Firewood
Readings: Smil, Energy in World History, pp. 1-14; Crosby, Children of the Sun, pp. 1-62; Clark, American Whale Fishery, pp. 321-324; and Melville Moby Dick Excerpt
2/14: Nature Incorporated: Hydropower and Industrialization
Readings: Nye, Consuming Power, pp. 43-68; Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, pp. 31-53; Steinberg, Nature Incorporated, pp. 1-49; 99-134; 166-239; Dublin, Female Operatives in Lowell, pp. 30-38; Lucy Larcom, Idyl of Work
Week 2 -- Study Questions
2/21: King Coal: The Coming of Fossil Fuels
FILM: How Green Was My Valley (Showing Tuesday 2/20 at 7:30 p.m. in Hamilton Auditorium -- HCL 8)
Readings: Johnson, King Coal, pp. 1-30; Freese, Coal: A Social History, pp. 103-197; Nye, Consuming Power, pp. 70-100; and Letwin, Interracial Unionism, pp. 519-554
Week 3 -- Study Questions
2/28: Oil City, Long Beach, and East Texas: The Origins of American Oil Development
Readings: Black, A Triumph of Individualism, pp. 448-471; Yergin, The Flood, pp. 245-259; Sabin, Rooting Around; Sabin, Crude Politics, pp. 1-107, 159-209
3/7: American Industry and the Mexican Oil Boom
Readings: Santiago, Ecology of Oil, pp.1-202 -- Part I; Part II; Ned the Driller
3/14: America's Kingdom: American Industry and the Saudi Oil Frontier
Readings: Vitalis, America's Kingdom, pp. ix-87, 158-275
FINAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION
3/21: Midterm and Project Presentation
Spring Break 3/26-3/30
4/4: Electrifying America: The Culture and Politics of Electrification
Readings: Crosby, Electricity, pp. 101-116; Nye, What is Electricity, 138-157, 168-184; Nye, Rural Lines, pp. 285-335; Adams, Dynamo and Virgin; Rome, Solar House to Electric Home, pp. 45-8
Recommended: TVA in Documents; Photos REA and TVA; Power: A Living Newspaper
Film: Power and the Land
4/11: Electricity and the Environment: Hydropower and Other Matters
Readings: White, Organic Machine; Johnson, Giant Power, pp. 84-100 (The rest is optional.)
Film: The River
4/18: The Atomic Age: Hiroshima, Bikini, and Three Mile Island
Readings: Crosby, "Fission" and "Fusion," pp. 126-158; Winkler, "The Atom and American Life", pp. 317-333; Chaitin et al., Life after the Bomb; Gallagher, "Nothing Natural"; Dower, "Hiroshima: Politics of Memory"; Holley, "Second Guessing"; Boyer, "From Activism to Apathy", 821-844; Walker, Excerpts from TMI, 71-150; Malmsheimer, "TMI: Fact, Frame, Fiction", 35-52
Primary: Ginsberg's "Plutonian Ode" (1978)
Optional: Alperovitz, "Hiroshima: Historians Reassess; Wellock, "Stick It in LA!"
Film Night: Atomic Cafe -- Tuesday, April 17th in HCL 8 at 7:00 p.m. (92 Minutes)
4/25: The Culture and Politics of the 1970s Energy Crisis
Readings: Merrill, The Oil Crisis, 1-133; Horowitz, Jimmy Carter and the Energy Crisis, 1-30, 104-119, and Assigned Excerpts (See Email)
Film: End of Suburbia
5/2: Coal and the Contemporary Costs of Cheap Energy
Reading: Jeff Goodall, Big Coal; NY Times, 10/28/06 – Coal, Religion, and Mountaintop Removal
Film Night: Harlan County, USA -- Tuesday, May 1st at 8:00 p.m. at FOUR WINDS
5/9: Contemporary Issues
Readings: IPCC Summary Report; Gedicks, Big Oil, the Environment and Human Rights
A Medley of News Articles on Nuclear Power: Splitting Atoms to Cool the Planet; Climate Bill Could Turn Friends; No Nukes; How Safe Is Safe; Spent Nuclear Fuel; Groundwater Reveals Radiation; Errors, Costs, Stall; An Alert Like No Other; Legacy of Hanford;
Optional: Sabin, Searching for a Middle Ground
Film: Oil on Ice
5/16: Student Presentations
5/23: Final Examination
SYLLABUS SUBJECT TO CHANGE |