This course introduces students to the study of history through an investigation of American material culture and the built environment from the pre-colonial period to the present. The course is structured around Friday site visits in the New England and mid-Atlantic regions, including the Pequot Museum, Mystic Seaport, Central Park, New York City waterfront, Fresh Kills, and local suburbs. Students will consider theories and methods of studying history through objects, landscapes, and architecture. We will consider how changing patterns of settlement and land use shaped human and natural ecology, and how people fashioned cultures and communities through the fabrication, circulation, and use of a wide range of natural and human-made objects. |