HIST 380 - Commodities, Nature, and Society

Semester Offered: First Semester
Credits (Range): 3 Hours
Attribute: 3 SS

This course explores the environmental and social histories of six commodities: silver, tobacco, silk, coffee, sneakers, and microchips. Each represents a complex array of linkages among producers, consumers, and intermediaries over time and space. Readings draw upon history, ecology, and geography to place these commodities in their social, environmental, and spatial contexts, and understand the changing roles of natural systems and divisions of human labor that underlie the long-term processes of “globalization.” Consent of instructor required. Enrollment limit: 12.
Instructor: E. Melillo