What is Environmental History?

Anders Öckerman

Uppsala University

september 04, 2007

The History of History (Myths)(Bible & antiquity) Early 1800: nation state/high politics

romanticismidealism

Mid 1800: historical turn in science Late 1800: materialism

positivismcultural history

Around 1900: source criticism Early 1900: social history

intellectual history Late 1900: marginal groups

James Ussher (1581-1656)

Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865)

Archaelogist/Museologist

Three period system (1818): Stone Age Bronze Age Iron age

Ledetraad til Nordisk Oldkyndighed (1836).

Metaphor:The House of History

Environmental History:Leaving the House

1. The Study of human-nature relationships through time (Encycl. of EH)

2. Three levels: Ecological history Interaction Mental (Worster)

3. Historical method and ecological analysis (Hughes)

4. Normative component

Environmental History: sources Texts Bio-archives

J R McNeill (2000)

In short:

"Man is everywhere a disturbing agent…The ravages committed by man subvert the relations and destroy the balance which nature [has] established..., and [nature] avenges herself upon the intruder by letting loose destructive energies…”

George Perkins Marsh (1801-82)

Ecological analysis Biodiversity

Resilience Evolutionary theory

Co-evolution Species strategies

Systems analysis Community

Competition Cooperation Imitation

Species strategies (McNeill)

Shark: specialist Rat: opportunist

Ecological analysis:Population dynamics J-curves

S-curves

EcologicalImperialism

Animals

Plants

Disease

Response to Ecological Crisis

Disaster Expansion Linking Sociotechnical change Cultural change