- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
From smokey cities to stagnant swamps and from terrifying mountains to the depths of mines, in this module we explore the environmental history of the early modern period (c.1500-1800). Each week we will explore a different facet of interaction with the material world, ranging from the macro-scale of climate to the curation of comfort at home. Along the way we will examine how early moderns across the globe framed their experience of the environment: from biblical apocalypse to scientific experimentation and from medical theories to landscape painting and aesthetics. We will examine the different ways in which resources were extracted from the environment and the impact of urbanization, agriculture, and colonial expansion. From mines in present-day Bolivia to the damp Dutch polders and from Vesuvius’ volcanic eruptions to China’s fir forests, we will examine the processes of environmental change taking place across the globe.
Each end of the period covered in this module is characterised by crises: from the great droughts that afflicted the Ottoman empire in the 1590s and the plagues that criss-crossed Europe to the Kanto flood of 1742 and Lisbon’s 1755 earthquake. The period was not short of environmental disasters and the module will therefore examine moments when floods, earthquakes, and pestilence all threatened life and limb. Finally, we will ask what studying early modern environmental history can contribute to our understanding of the ecological disaster happening around us in the present. If the ‘modern’ period is one that we might usefully describe as the ‘anthropocene’, the geological age in which human activity has become the dominant influence on the climate and environment, then to what extent did the ‘early modern’ period witness the beginning of that epoch?
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).
For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.
Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading: