Majoring in History with Emphasis on Environmental History

Undergraduate students interested in emphasizing environmental history in their coursework have a unique ability to do so at Ohio State. Ohio State's history department boasts more faculty members offering courses in the field of environmental history than any other university in the United States. Beyond the history department, students will find professors in departments throughout the College of Arts and Sciences that also center their teaching around historic human-environmental interactions. Below is a list, description, and frequency of commonly offered environmental history courses. For a complete list that includes a broader array of courses including those in the adjacent fields of the histories of technology, science, health, and medicine see the "Teaching" tab on the Environmental History Initiative homepage.

History 2911: The Climate Crisis: Mechanisms, Impacts, and Mitigation

This course is team taught by Jim Harris from the history department along with other specialists from outside the department. Due to this, it is cross-listed with the departments of Earth Science and Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology. It is typically offered every autumn semester and taught in-person. It examines the science behind climate change, the ability to make accurate predictions of future climate conditions, and gauges the implications for global sustainability. It fulfills the GEN themes of Lived Environments and Sustainability. 

History 2700: Global Environmental History

This course is offered by many different instructors who each bring their unique approach to the course. It is typically offered every spring and autumn semester and ranges from an in-person and online format. It provides a global overview of the ecology of the human condition in past time, stressing climate change, earth systems, technology, energy, demography, and human cultural-economic revolutions. English 1110 is a required prerequisite. This course fulfills the GEN foundations of Historical and Cultural Studies and Social and Behavioral Sciences. 

History 2702: Food in World History

This course is offered by different instructors who each bring their unique approach to this course. It is typically offered every spring and autumn semester and is often offered in an online format. It surveys the history of food, drink, diet, and nutrition in a global context. English 1110 is a required prerequisite. This course fulfills the GEN theme of Sustainability. 

History 2704: Water: A Human History

This course is typically taught by Nicholas Breyfogle or Ellen Arnold. It is typically offered once per academic year and either in an in-person or online format. This course probes the history of human use and understandings of water from ancient to modern times and includes case studies from a range of geographic regions. English 1110 is a required prerequisite. This course fulfills the GEN theme of Sustainability. 

History 2710: History of the Car

This course is typically taught by Jennifer Eaglin. It is typically offered once per academic year and in-person. It examines the development of the car in the twentieth century initially in the United States before broadening to understand how its global expansion grew to become a defining feature of modern global society. English 1110 is a required prerequisite. This course fulfills the GEN theme of Lived Environments.

History 3700: American Environmental History

This course is typically taught by Bart Elmore. It is typically offered once every other year and in-person. It examines the history of American ecosystems from the last Ice Age to the present while focusing on historical debates over the causes and consequences of environmental change. English 1110 is a required prerequisite. 

History 3706: Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of American Business and Global Environmental Change, 1800-Today

This course is typically taught by Bart Elmore. It is typically offered once every other year and in-person. It introduces students to environmental and business history and begins with the industrial revolution of the early nineteenth century before ending in the twenty-first century. It chronicles the rise of some of America's biggest multinational corporations and examines how these firms, working with government and other institutions, shaped global change. English 1110 is a required prerequisite. This course fulfills the GEN theme of Sustainability.