This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Readings

Required Texts

Amazon logo Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. ISBN: 9780395683309.

Amazon logo Cook, James. Journals of Captain Cook. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 2000. ISBN: 9780140436471.

Amazon logo Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2003. ISBN: 9780809016341.

Amazon logo Crosby, Alfred. The Columbian Exchange. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003. ISBN: 9780275980733.

Amazon logo Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Year. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1992. ISBN: 9780393961881. (Download a version from the Gutenberg Project.)

Amazon logo Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working Class in England. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1987. ISBN: 9780140444865.

Amazon logo Herlihy, David. The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780674076136.

Amazon logo Jacoby, Karl. Crimes Against Nature. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780520220270.

Amazon logo Mncall, Peter. Envisioning America. Boston, MA: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780312122522.

Amazon logo McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN: 9780393051797.

Amazon logo O'Grada, C. Black '47 and Beyond. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780691015507.

Amazon logo White, Richard. The Organic Machine. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1996. ISBN: 9780809015832.

Readings by Class Session

 

SES # TOPICS READINGS QUESTIONS TERMS HANDOUTS
1-2 Introduction

McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. pp. 25-40.

Related Web Sites

The Maoi

Easter Island

Arctodus simus Yukonensis

Dinnertime at Cuddie Springs: Hunting and Butchering Megafauna?

Smithsonian Institution: Virtual Tour of the National Museum of Natural History: Ice Age Mammals: Giant Ground Sloth

Illinois State Museum: Ground Sloths

Illinois State Museum: Armadillo

  (PDF) Kinds of Societies (PDF)
3-4 The Disease Environment

Amazon logo Herlihy, David. The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780674076136.

Amazon logo Defoe, Daniel. Journal of the Plague Year. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1992, pp. 1-51. ISBN: 9780393961881.

McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. pp. 75-81 and 264-6.

Related Web Sites

Electronic Textbook of Dermatology: Bubonic Plague

The Black Death

PBS: A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Bubonic Plague Hits San Francisco

The Black Death (PDF)

Journal of the Plague Year (PDF)

(PDF)  
5-6 The Columbian Exchange

Amazon logo Crosby, Alfred. The Columbian Exchange. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2003. Chapters 2, 3, and 5. ISBN: 9780275980733.

Amazon logo Mancall, Peter. Envisioning America. Boston, MA: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 45-61, 112-132 and 140-148. ISBN: 9780312122522.

McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. pp. 108-15 and 160-1.

Crosby, The Columbian Exchange (PDF)

Selections in Mancall (PDF)

(PDF)  
7-8 Wilderness and Garden

Amazon logo Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 2003. ISBN: 9780809016341.

Related Web Sites

Museum of Garden History: Tradescant Knot Garden

Versailles Gardens

Changes in the Land (PDF) (PDF)  
9-10 Science and Nature

Amazon logo Cook, James. Journals of Captain Cook. New York, NY: Penguin edition, 2000, pp. 39-61, 125-134, 335-339, 374-390 and 530-547. ISBN: 9780140436471.

McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. pp. 137-53, 162-78, 186-9 and 200-5.

The Journals of Captain Cook (PDF) (PDF) Bestiary and Natural History (PDF)
11 Field Trip to Burndy Library

Related Web Site

Burndy Library

     
12-14 Landscape and Agriculture

O'Grada, C. Black '47 and Beyond. Chapters 1, 3 and 4.

Related Web Sites

Irish Famine: Views of the Famine

Map of Irish Counties

The Irish Famine (PDF) (PDF)

Goldsmith, Oliver. "The Deserted Village." (PDF)

The Shock of Industrialization (PDF)

15-16 Industry and Demography

Amazon logo Engels, Friedrich. Chapters 2 and 5 in The Condition of the Working Class in England. London; New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1987. ISBN: 9780140444865.

Related Web Sites

England before (1701) and after (1911) the Industrial Revolution

BBC: History: Industrialisation

Condition of the Working Class (PDF) (PDF)  
17-18 Conservation and Preservation

Jacoby. "Introduction." In Crimes Against Nature. Chapters 4-6.

McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. pp. 217-23, 230-52 and 279-84.

Conservation and Preservation (PDF) (PDF)  
20-21 Poisoning and Environmentalism

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Chapters 1, 7, 9, 10, 14 and 16.

Rosenberg, Tina. "What the World Needs Now is DDT?" The New York Times Sunday Magazine. April 11, 2004.

Silent Spring (PDF)    
22-23 Current Events

McNeill, J. R., and W. H. McNeill. The Human Web. pp. 284-8 and 319-327.

White, Richard. The Organic Machine.

The Organic Machine (PDF) (PDF)