The Economy of Nature and Nations
HIST 307
Spring 2025
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
STS 307, ENVS 307 |
On many of the key environmental problems of the 21st century, from climate change to biodiversity conservation, the perspectives of ecology and economics often seem poles apart. Ecology is typically associated with a skeptical stance toward economic growth and human intervention in the environment, while economics focuses on understanding (and often, celebrating) human activities of production, consumption, and growth. At the same time, ecology and economics share a common etymology: both words spring from the Greek oikos, or household. They also share much common history. This course thus explores the parallel histories of economics and ecology from the 18th century to the present, focusing on changing conceptions of the oikos over this period, from cameralism's vision of the household as a princely estate or kingdom, continuing through the emergence of ideas about national or imperial economic development, and culminating in the dominant 20th-century recasting of economics as being centrally concerned with problems of resource allocation. Simultaneously, the course explores connections between changes in economics and the emergence of ecological science over this period, from Enlightenment natural history and early musings on the "economy of nature," to the design of markets for carbon credits today. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENVS-MN)(ENVS)(HIST-MN)(HIST)(STS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Paul Sabin, THE BET: PAUL EHRLICH, JULIAN SIMON, AND OUR GAMBLE OVER EARTH'S FUTURE (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013)
Carolyn Merchant, THE DEATH OF NATURE: WOMEN, ECOLOGY, AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION (New York: Harper and Row, 1980)
John Bellamy Foster, MARX'S ECOLOGY: MATERIALISM AND NATURE (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000)
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Examinations and Assignments:
In addition to brief weekly assignments based on the readings, students will develop a final paper via a cumulative sequence of book reviews, annotated bibliographies, and drafts. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Erickson,Paul Times: .M..... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: PAC108; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 4 | JR non-major: 4 | SO: 3 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 3 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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