Category Archives: Environmental History

Gruyère: The Latest Round in the Food Culture Wars

Posted on January 13, 2022 by briansandberg

Food is Culture! This proclamation is a both a popular idea and a serious anthropological approach to food, cuisine, and agricultural production. Food historians take the cultural dimensions of food production and consumption seriously as revealing important social dynamics. Food … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural History, Culture, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Environmental History, European Studies, European Union, Food and Cuisine History, Francophonie, French History, Globalization, History in the Media, Italian History, Material Culture, Renaissance Art and History, United States History and Society, World History | Leave a comment

History of Sleep in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Posted on January 11, 2022 by briansandberg

Nothing could seem more “natural” than our rhythms of sleep, yet there is a history of sleep. Historians have recognized various changes in sleeping patterns in the modern industrialized and post-industrial world, which have also been studied by scientists. Over … Continue reading →

Posted in Archival Research, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern France, Early Modern World, Environmental History, European History, Globalization, History in the Media, History of Medicine, History of Science, History of the Western World, Italian History, Medieval History, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, Social History, World History | Leave a comment

Geckos, Environmental History, and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Posted on August 4, 2021 by briansandberg

Historians are collaborating with scientists in new ways these days, especially in the growing field of environmental history. Scholars are making new and fascinating discoveries about the long history of human transformations of environments. Historians of the Columbian Exchange, beginning … Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic World, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, Environmental History, Globalization, History of Science, Maritime History, Renaissance Art and History, World History | Leave a comment

New Research at Cahokia Mounds Site in Illinois

Posted on May 3, 2021 by briansandberg

New archaeological excavations at Cahokia, Illinois, have been investigating evidence of deforestation and flooding at the site of a major indigenous urban center. The New York Times reports that “A thousand years ago, a city rose on the banks of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural History, Environmental History, Illinois History and Society, Material Culture, Medieval History, Museums and Historical Memory, United States History and Society, Urban History, World History | Leave a comment

On the Backs of Tortoises

Posted on February 22, 2021 by briansandberg

The Department of History at Northern Illinois University will be holding a virtual colloquium lecture tomorrow.  All NIU students are invited to participate in this History colloquium event, which will be held virtually on Zoom. Elizabeth Hennessy from the University … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental History, Globalization, History of Science, Lectures and Seminars, Maritime History, World History | Leave a comment

The Atlantic World before Jamestown

Posted on January 23, 2019 by briansandberg

Professor Peter Mancall will be presenting a lecture on the sixteenth-century Atlantic World at the Newberry Library on Saturday, 2 February 2019 at 10 AM – 11:30 AM. “In the 16th-century Atlantic world, nature and culture swirled in people’s minds … Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic World, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, Environmental History, European History, Globalization, Lectures and Seminars, Maritime History, Renaissance Art and History | Leave a comment

The Insufficient Ark at U of C

Posted on January 29, 2015 by briansandberg

The Early Modern Workshop at the University of Chicago is holding a discussion of Maura Capps’ dissertation chapter “The Insufficient Ark: A Political Ecology of a Failed Agricultural Department at the Cape of Good Hope, 1795-1806.” Maura is a PhD … Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic World, Cultural History, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, Environmental History, European History, Food and Cuisine History, Globalization, Lectures and Seminars, Northern Illinois University | Leave a comment

New Findings on the Black Death

Posted on January 29, 2014 by briansandberg

Recent DNA research on plague victims has led to new findings on the Black Death, published yesterday at the Lancet online. According to the BBC, “A team has compared the genomes of the Justinian Plague and the Black Death to … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental History, European History, History of Medicine, History of Science, Mediterranean World | Leave a comment

Revisiting the Costa Concordia Disaster

Posted on July 20, 2013 by briansandberg

The cruise liner Costa Concordia wrecked into the isola di Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany, on 13 January 2012. The ship then heeled over and partially capsized while its roughly 4,000 passengers were evacuating the ship. Thirty-two people died … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental History, European Union, Italian History, Maritime History, Mediterranean World | Leave a comment

Recreating Early Modern Medicinal Gardens

Posted on July 6, 2013 by briansandberg

The New York Botanical Garden has recreated a sixteenth-century medicinal garden as part of its exhibit on Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World. The medicinal garden is patterned on the botanical garden that was created in 1545 for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Environmental History, European History, Globalization, History of Medicine, History of Science, Mediterranean World | Leave a comment