Institute of Advanced Studies

The environment in history; history in the environment

by Dr Andrea Gaynor, UWA

When we think of what it is that historians study, the environment rarely springs to mind.

However, there is a long tradition of historically-informed writing about human-environment relations, and in the midst of the rise of the new environment movement in the 1970s and 1980s, a new sub-discipline coalesced around this theme. Following their social counterparts, environmental historians sought to rescue the environment from ‘the enormous condescension of history’, and use their historical knowledge and skills to solve pressing environmental problems. However, amidst the excitement of working in this ‘new’ interdisciplinary field, environmental historians grappled with issues of determinism, holism, and interdisciplinarity (particularly with the natural sciences), and some began to find their central concern – whether conceived of as 'nature', 'ecology', or ‘environment’ – increasingly problematic.

This lecture will explore the diverse ways in which historians have engaged with the environment, and ask whether such engagements throw light on broader issues relating to the scope and purpose of history.