1 Video interviews and lectures

Professor Chris Smout introduces in this clip what environmental history is and why it is important. He argues that the subject area is like a stage on which various subjects come together. The difference with conventional history is that environmental history is not only concerned with people but also with nature, the landscape and the environment as a whole. However, it is not just the history of nature but more the history of human interaction with the environment.

Video 1: Interview with Professor T.C. Smout, part 1

© The University of Edinburgh 2008.

Instructions

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Readings: Environmental History

Brimblecombe, Peter & Pfister, Christian, "Introduction", in The Silent Countdown: Essays in European Environmental History, (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1993): 1-6.

Coates, Peter, "Clio's New Greenhouse", in History today, 46, 8 (1996): 15-22.

McNeill, J. R., "Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History", in History and Theory, 42, no. 4 (2003): 5-43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3590677

Oosthoek, K. Jan, "What is environmental history?", Environmental History Resources, Accessed: 19th November 2008. http://www.eh-resources.org/environmental_history.html

* Smout, T.C., "Introduction", in Scotland since prehistory. Natural change & human impact , (Aberdeen: SCP, 1993): xii-xx.

Smout, T. C., Nature Contested: Environmental History in Scotland and Northern England, (Edinburgh University Press, 2000).

* Sorlin, Sverker & Paul Warde, "The Problem of the Problem of Environmental History: A Re-reading of the Field", in Environmental History, 12, no. 1 (January 2007). http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/12.1/sorlin.html

* Worster, Donald, "Doing environmental history", in The ends of the Earth. Essays in modern environmental history, (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988): 289-308.

The titles indicated with an * are essential reading.

Readings: Invasive Species

Hall, Marcus, "Editorial: The Native, Naturalized and Exotic--plants and animals in human history", in Landscape Research, 28, no. 1 (2003): 5. http://catalogue.lib.ed.ac.uk/webvoy.htm

Smout, T. C., "The Alien Species in 20th-century Britain: constructing a new vermin", in Landscape Research, 28, no. 1 (2003): 11. http://catalogue.lib.ed.ac.uk/webvoy.htm