In Wildness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price.
Men plough and sail for it.
We will, however, spend some time at the beginning of the course getting oriented in the nineteenth century. Second, we will consider several cases of the human impact on the environment in what is now the United States. We will look at changes in the forests of the Blue Mountains of Oregon, the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the meanings of the Hoover Dam, the impacts of the production of nuclear weapons, and the water system of the western U.S. Besides becoming more aware of the scope of human intervention in the environment, we will ask what factors have caused environmental change. Third, we will look at U.S. environmental policy and politics over the course of the twentieth century. We will consider the history of the conservation and preservation movements, national parks, the rise of the environmental movement, and environmental racism.