HSTAA 221
Nash
Review Questions for Final Exam.
Essay Question (80%)
Three of the following questions will appear on the final exam. You will be required to
answer one. You answer should rely primarily on evidence from lectures and/or
readings.
1. “Americans have often pursued environmental quality at the expense of social
justice.” So writes historian Karl Jacoby. Evaluate this statement with respect to the
following: (1) the 19th century conservation movement; (2) the New Deal’s
agricultural policies; and (3) the situation of Gary, Indiana in the post-World War II
decades as described by Andrew Hurley.
2. Some scholars emphasize the novelty of post-WWII environmental reform, while
others insist that there are important continuities with the environmental reforms of
the Progressive era (~1880-1910). Compare and contrast these two periods of
environmental reform.
3. Consider the environmental dimensions of American imperial power in three of the
following four instances: (1) the establishment of the first national parks in the
American West; (2) Progressive-era forestry in the Philippines; (3) American sugar
production in Oriente, Cuba (ca 1900-1920); and (4) nuclear testing in the Marshall
Islands. In each case, consider why Americans sought imperial control of resources,
the effects on local landscapes, and the effects on local people.
4. Imagine that you were to pose the question, “What is nature, and how and why should
we protect it?” to a nineteenth-century romantic (e.g., Ralph Waldo Emerson), a New
Dealer, Rachel Carson, and Lois Gibbs. Sketch out their possible responses and
explain how their particular historical context would likely shape their answers.
5. The role of the federal state in US environmental history has been contradictory. On
the one hand, the state has periodically mandated environmental conservation and
protection, while, on the other, it has also helped foster resource consumption and
pollution. Discuss the state’s most important effects on the environment across the
twentieth century using some specific examples, and then assess the overall effect of
the federal state on the environment. Has the state been a net positive or negative
force in the struggle to achieve better environmental quality?
6. American women have often played a key role in advocating for environmental
reforms. Discuss women’s participation in environmental reform efforts during the
Progressive Era, the post-World War II decades (1950s-60s), and the late-twentieth
century (1970s-90s). In your answer, consider how gender informed the issues that
women took up and whether and how it shaped the form of their advocacy.
HSTAA 221
Nash
Short Answer (20%)
Barry Commoner
Dinosaur National Monument
Disney’s True-Life Adventures
Photo of earth from space
social ecology
Carleton Watkins
Lacey Act
Bravo test
Eugene and Howard Odum
Progressivism
Albert Bierstadt
Public Lands Commission
“Wilderness is waste.”
George Patrick Ahern
hybrid corn seed
Greenbelt, Maryland
Keynesian economics
National Housing Act/Federal Housing Authority
eutrophication of Lake Washington
Strontium-90
The Plow that Broke the Plains
Regional Planning Association of America
Love Canal Homeowners Association