Environmental history is the study of the relationships between humans and the natural world. This is a relatively new field in historical study. This course, focused on American Environmental History, will introduce a new methodology to understand the last five hundred years of North America. It assumes no prior knowledge of American history or geography or environmental studies. Multidisciplinary by nature, it should be considered a complementary course to a wide variety of disciplines, from biology to literature to anthropology. Ranging widely, the course will focus on four primary interactions – species shifting, man’s transformation of the landscape, the environmental movement, and environmental racism.