This course introduces students to the historical roots of the ecological and environmental thinking. We will examine what is distinctive about this field of history as it provides us with explanations to the contrasting discourses of the ecological thought. We shall examine the eco-centric approach in contrast to the techno-centric attitude by compering between Gilbert White's Arcadia, Alexander von Humboldt's cosmos approach, and the 'imperial' approach represented in Carl Linnaeus writings. This dialectical scheme will guide us through the course and direct us to look closely upon various topics such as:

Romanticism and ecology; Green Colonialism; William Morris and the environment as revolution; the American frontier and the "Machine in the Garden"; Thoreau, Emerson and the birth of the ecological holism; counterculture and environmentalism and, Cultural Ecology as Cyber-ecology and the New Nature attached to it.

As these subjects of conversation suggest, the principle goal of the course is to introduce the student to some of the vital ideas, scholarly trends, and methods that inform our efforts to gain historical perspective on matters of environment and ecology as cultural entities.