View source for How It Came to Be Other Resources

'''Core Readings'''
*''Wikipedia''. "Geological History of Earth." Read Introduction. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_Earth Link] 1 min.
*''Wikipedia''. "Timeline of the Evolutionary History of Life." Read introduction. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_evolutionary_history_of_life Link] 1 min.
*Ponting, Clive. (1993). "Foundations of History." ''Green History of the World.'' pp. 8-18. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrNkxFSFdhbjFCTzA/view?usp=sharing Link]. 15 min.
*Birdsell, J.B.. (1975) "The Universe and Our Place in It." ''Human Evolution.'' pp. 11-19. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrSkVOVlZvaWI1czQ/view?usp=sharing Link] 10 min.
*Harvey, Joe. (1990). "Growth in Perspective." ''Rocky Mountain Institute Newsletter.'' p. 4, 7. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8dQDga7c8qYTHA0WlpkQ2VfSDg/view?usp=sharing Link] 10 min.
Harvey draws one-day analogy to 3.5 billion years of life on Earth and shows destructiveness of what humans have done and impossibility of continuing. 
* [[H. Sapiens Notes]]
*Diamond, Jared. (1987). "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race." ''Discover Magazine''. [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8dQDga7c8qYRFNLZEY1ZTRCRDg Link] 3 pp, 5 min.
*Shepard, Paul. (1998). "10,000 Years of Crisis." ''The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game.'' pp. 1-26. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrSTdYcGJmMjROenc/view?usp=sharing link] 40 min.
Shepard portrays the shift to agriculture as a key element in decline of humanity and planet. 
*Population Reference Bureau. (1994). "World Population Graph." [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8dQDga7c8qYRkJsd3FKWnY3am8 Link]
*Miller, G. Tyler. (1975). ''Living in the Environment.'' "Kilocalories per Person per Day." [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8dQDga7c8qYM1BIVzdtMjVqa2c Link]
*Heilbroner, Robert. (1999). "The Economic Revolution." ''The Worldly Philosophers.'' pp. 18-41. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrNEIxREdxRXB5NEE/view?usp=sharing Link] 25 min.
Heilbroner chronicles the emergence of mercantilism in Europe that marked the beginnings of a transformation from agrarian to industrial society, and from tradition-based social relationships to money-mediated society.
*Seavoy, Ronald. (1986). ''Famine in Peasant Societies''. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrUXdUOTVZZnZUb0E/view?usp=sharing Link] Read highlighted text and skim the rest. 30 min. 
Seavoy argues that peasants prefer periodic famine to leisure. On the basis of examples drawn from diverse places and times he asserts that the only way to induce peasants to work hard enough to extract surplus from them is to deny them a "subsistence compromise," which he defines as working enough to feed everyone during normal years, and accepting that some will die during years of poor harvest.
*Ponting, Clive. (1991). "Creating the Third World." ''Green History of the World''. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrWjlPOUxFbDBVY2M/view?usp=sharing Link] 30 min.
*''Wikipedia''. "Swing Riots."  [https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8dQDga7c8qYb1BhbDhsYVRQLWM Link] 5 pp, 10 min.
Swing riots in early 19th century England resulted from enclosure, mechanization, burdensome mandatory tithe, and rent, and were instrumental in evolution of workhouses as means to control the poor.
*''Wikipedia.'' "Workhouses." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workhouses Link] skim 5 min.
Read the intro and the section entitled "Modern View." Roots of 'social Darwinism', class, and the 1% in 17th-19th century England. 

'''Interest Readings'''
*''Wikipedia''. "Evolution." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution Link] Read introduction. 5 min.
*Riversong, Robert. (2007). Summary of: Ponting, Clive ''A New Green History of the World.'' [http://riversong.wordpress.com/new-green-history-of-the-world/ Link] 20pp.
Excellent, relatively lengthy summary of a book about human global history written from an ecological perspective.
*McAlpin, Michelle. (1986). Review of Seavoy, Ronald E. ''Famine in Peasant Societies.'' pp. 237-239. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2122397 Link] 5 min.
McAlpin recounts how Seavoy explains peasant commitment to leisure over security even to the point of accepting periodic famine, and why this commitment makes denial of the "subsistence compromise" essential to sever peasants from the land and enlist them in the commercial exchange economy.
*Represent.Us. (2016). ''Corruption is Legal in America''.  [https://represent.us/action/theproblem-4/ Link]
Two graphics: lobbying, return on lobbying investment.
*Chomsky, Noam. (2015). "Magna Carta Messed Up the World; Here's How to Fix It."  ''Reader Supported News.''  [http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/30437-magna-carta-messed-up-the-world-heres-how-to-fix-it Link] 6pp., 6 min.
With broad strokes Chomsky traces 800-years of Anglo-American legal history regarding freedom and property and describes the fictions by which we've limited the former for most and elevated it for the holders of the latter with devastating results for our common condition.

[[Category: Course]]