HIST S420 (CRN: 30703)
Dates: H5B
Course Mode: LMIP, YCHU
Meeting Times: MWF 9.00-11.15
Distributional Requirements: LMIP, YCHU
In-person Course. The course will examine what and how we know about past climate change and what role these changes played in historical societal adaptations. We will explore the deep history of Earth's climate system and how a wide variety of human societies have understood and responded to sudden and longer term changes, why this matters for understanding current climate change, and how historical experience might inform policies and adaptations in the future. The reasons for the rise and fall of human civilizations have been debated in the West since Edward Gibbon published the first installment of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776. As great as Gibbon’s work is, it was actually the 14th century Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun who first theorized the basic ideas of why and how states rise and fall. From Gibbon onward there has been considerable work in several fields, among them History, Archaeology, Economics, Sociology and Political Science, addressing the basic question: Are some societies more durable than others? Why was the Roman Empire enduring while the empires of the ancient Near East experienced cycles of rise and decline? The idea that history moved in “cycles” or “waves” was first made popular by Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West (1918-22), although the cyclical idea of history goes back to the ancient Greeks. It has come roaring back into fashion in recent historical work and in popular discourse as well. It was made especially popular by Malcolm Gladwell in his The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. This kind of thinking can explain much, but not everything, about patterns in human history and behavior. 1 Credit. Session B: July 1 – August 2. Tuition: $5070.