The origin, level and research dynamics of environmental history

Summary of content: The new field of environmental history as a new field of historical research has emerged in the mid -1970s. The main research of environmental history and the interaction between people and nature has changed people's ways of thinking about the past, and provided new topics, research objects, methods, and materials for the academic community. Its research includes three levels, "nature", "culture" and the integration of the two. In recent years, research topics that have received widespread environmental history include the integration of environmental history and natural sciences, climate change, infectious diseases, water, urban, environmental justice, species, sex, and environmental history.

Author: Donald Worster, born in California, 1941, received a doctorate degree in Yale University in 1971, and since 1989, he has been a professor of Outstanding Professor of Hall at the University of Kansas to retire. He is one of the founders of the history of the American Environment. He has served as the chairman of the American Environment History Society and his masterpiece "Dust Storm: The Great Plain of the United States in the 1930s" (1982). He translated into Chinese works include "Natural Economic System: History of Ecological Thought", "Dust Storm: The Great Plain of the United States in the Southern Plain in the 1930s", "Under the West: Nature and History of the West of the United States" and "River of the Empire: Water, Drought Drought Growth with the western United States ".

Translated by Xu Lu, Liang Xiaoyi, Li Xinghao

Source: "International Social Science Magazine" 2022, Issue 2 P58 -P61

Editor in charge: Liang Guangyan Zhang Nanqian

Quotation

As a new field of historical research, the history of the environment started in the mid -1970s. Professor Wost is the first batch of historians to carry out environmental history teaching and scientific research, and has become an authoritative witness of the development of environmental history. In this article, he introduced how environmental history has emerged in the United States and spreads to all over the world, and shared his observation and thinking about the development of environmental history research.

The origin of environmental history

In 1974, by the river flowing through the river flowing through the center of San Antonio, two young historians met on the bench in the park. John Opie is one of them, I am another. We are about to participate in the American History Conference, there are not far from the hotel we live in. The American History Association gave birth to a new academic organization called the American Society for ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY. Op is the main promoter of the Society, and he died in 2018. When we met, he established this new organization to seek support from me, and I gladly agreed. Later, Susan Flader, another professor, also joined the Missouri State University. A few months later, the American Environmental History Society held the first public rally in Washington, Columbia, which attracted many people to participate. Forty -six years later, the organization continued to grow and expand the world, and also released an excellent journal "Environmental History". I am from the desert of Southern California. Needles is the place where I was born, and the rich grassland on the large North American plains is my growth place. In 1971, I graduated from Yale University in New England, where my study experience made me a historian. The desert of California and the grasslands in the western United States have inspired my enthusiasm for research on environmental history.

Environment history was born in a specific era in the United States and the world. The 1960s and 1970s was an important historical period. In 1963, the civil rights movement broke out in Washington, and Martin Luther King delivered a well -known speech "I Have a Dream". The birth of the civil rights movement has continued to grow, and the goal is to strive for the equal rights of colorful races. Immediately afterwards, the Vietnam War shook the core position of the United States. At the same time, the feminist movement is in full swing, and women seek an equal social status and the right to determine their own lives. Environmental crisis and environmental movement have also become important social issues. In 1970, some students in the United States organized the first "World Earth Day" and later developed into an international movement covering more than 200 countries. The time is set on April 22 each year. Represented by Rachel Carson, environmental protectionists, scientists, and social activists have begun to express their deep attention to environmental problems such as pollution, radiation, and species extinction. Although I have been talking about American characters and sports, similar incidents have happened around the world.

Obviously, we need a new history. After the creation of the American Environment History Society, the European Society for Environmental History was finally established in 1999. In recent years, East Asian Environmental History Association is established in Japan. Today, tens of thousands of historians around the world claim to engage in environmental history research. I never thought that the long talk with John and John on the bench of the park can make environmental history develop into today's scale. Thanks to John and those who support us, this new historical research has attracted historians around the world to participate.

Basic content of environmental history

Environmental history has changed our way of thinking about the past, and provides new topics, research objects, methods, and materials. It is a field of "Collective". "Together" means that there is no strict discipline boundary, nor does it have absolute standards to judge whether a research is an environmental history. In general, we believe that environmental history is studying the interaction between man and nature. Man is a culture of culture, but culture stems from nature. Our beliefs, values, thinking and perception methods are inseparable from the natural environment. Human social life is inseparable from food and energy from Non-Human Environment. Therefore, with the evolution of nature and exchanging between humans and the environment, this process is like a double dance, but it does not always dance happily, and sometimes it is full of conflict and destruction. Many people who criticize environmental history believe that similar studies have appeared a long time ago, and the preparation of environmental history has nothing to do. It is true that past researchers have also paid attention to some topics discussed by current environmental history, but they just explore natural, population and land in isolation. These researchers are mainly geographers, especially historians, and their work is not environmental history. To a large extent, geography do not study the natural environment. They are concerned about space, while environmental history is concerned about nature, evolution, plant, animal, soil, water, mountains, rivers, climate, continents and oceans. Things are figurative rather than abstract. This is the difference between the history of geography and the environment. In fact, more and more historians have begun to claim to be environmental historians, and they are no longer just research space. Environmental history is an extremely open field. Anthropologists, economists, government staff, and even anyone who wants to explore the relationship between people and nature in the past can participate.

Three levels of environmental history research

The history of environmental history is not a imaginary study. As early as 1990, I began to try to determine the level of environmental history research. Each level is important. It is a knowledge system for natural science and social sciences, so different analysis paths are needed. Historians need to understand the connection between these levels and integrate. Of course, there are no single answers on how to operate, and each person's integration and connection are different.

The first level of environmental history is "nature". Researchers need to understand the structure of the past natural environment and how the environment has evolved over time. This work is difficult, we should learn the pioneer of environmental history, Charles Darwin. Darwin is a British maternal scholar. His "On the Origin Species" has shocked the world since its publishing in 1858. I think the history of environmental history is part of the Darwin science and philosophy revolution.

The second level of environmental history is "culture". It involves all kinds of connections between human society and nature. Ideological, religious, art, law, and myths, all of which are part of human and nature. Environmental historians try to understand how people perceive the environment and how people are affected by cultural factors such as beliefs and values.

The third level of environmental history integrates "nature" and "culture". Human beings not only changed their natural appearance, but also changed the interconnection within human society. The biggest problem is that in the above process, some people have obtained power, and some people lose power. Related research on environmental history helps us understand the distribution and transfer of power. The third level of content is the "middle zone" of environmental history research. In this area, natural encounter, interaction and shaping each other.

These three levels are the main content of environmental history research. In fact, different historians have different focus on these three levels.

Research dynamics of environmental history

In the past few years, the following research dynamics exist in environmental history:

1. Integration of environmental history and natural science. Environmental historians seek data, perspectives and theories from natural scientists. In this sense, "environmental history" can also be called "ecological history". Some people think that the "ecological history" method is not broad enough, because environmental history involves various scientific categories. Environmental historians believe that science can help us understand the past and continuously integrate the knowledge system of interdisciplinary.

2. Climate change. The history of environmental history is increasingly concerned about climate change and its impact, and what can be expected to have a certain extent in the past research. Even if the situation today is different from the past, we can still learn from the past.

3. Infectious disease. Environmental history scholars like to collect information related to infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are not new, it has been a history of thousands of years. Nevertheless, every outbreak of infectious diseases has changed, and new situations will always occur. New Corphor-pneumonia (COVID-19) is a typical example, and humans need to take a new way to deal with it.

4. Water. Water is both natural resources and an ecosystem. The interest of environmental history for water is increasingly strong, especially the ocean and rivers. For a long time, most historians only paid attention to what happened on land and ignored the ocean. River has also become an important topic of environmental history research, and each river has a history of interaction with nature.

5. City. The history of environmental history is increasingly concerned about the relationship between cities and nature.

6. Environmental justice. Environmental justice is an issue that has only developed in recent years. People are more and more concerned about the expression of social justice in the environment. Scholars pay attention to the issue of Environmental Justice and Environmental Injustice. For example, who has caused pollution and who has to afford the consequences 7. Species. Species are also increasingly emphasized by feminists. People used to think that only human beings are truly important species on the planet, and the latest statistics show that at least 8 million species (excluding viruses and bacteria) share this planet with humans. They all have their own history and interact with humans. We can no longer think that history is just a history of human beings, because humans are only part of the earth's life network.

8. Sex. Environmental historians are very interested in sex, especially in human history about instincts, passion, and biological laws.

9. Internationalization of environmental history. Traditional history is the history of national countries, but natural elements do not follow the boundary of the nation -state. Environmental historians try to get rid of the "National State Mentality" framework and liberate history from nationalism to Super-Nationsalism. Nationalism has hindered human thinking on many environmental issues. For example, each country is responsible for climate change, and developed countries must bear greater responsibilities. If we only consider their own interests, it is difficult to deal with climate issues caused by all human beings. In "World No Border" published in 1982, I advocated historical research to move towards international or globalization.

Questions and answers

Question: How do you think of the history of the environment in the United States?

Answer: In the 1970s, the American academic community took the lead in proposing environmental history, with some special reasons. First, compared with other countries, the United States was particularly concerned about the natural heritage of its country at that time. Second, compared to Europe, young American professors at that time had more academic freedom. In fact, scholars' interests, values ​​and research focus can change the development of historical writing and history.

Question: As an environmental historian, how do you think of pragmatism?

Answer: I think I am a practicalist, and pragmatism is my basic philosophy. I try to avoid religious and traditional presets. Pragmatism is a very interesting and complicated philosophy, developing rapidly in the United States in the 19-20 century. It is largely influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution. Of course, not all Americans are practicalists. Many people have strong ideology, especially conservative religious ideology. This is a very strong trend of thought in American culture.

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