How It Came to Be Other Resources

Core Readings

• Wikipedia. "Geological History of Earth." Read Introduction. Link 1 min.
• Wikipedia. "Timeline of the Evolutionary History of Life." Read introduction. Link 1 min.
• Ponting, Clive. (1993). "Foundations of History." Green History of the World. pp. 8-18. Link. 15 min.
• Birdsell, J.B.. (1975) "The Universe and Our Place in It." Human Evolution. pp. 11-19. Link 10 min.
• Harvey, Joe. (1990). "Growth in Perspective." Rocky Mountain Institute Newsletter. p. 4, 7. 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 1 min.
• Diamond, Jared. (1987). "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race." Discover Magazine. Link 3 pp, 5 min.
• Shepard, Paul. (1998). "10,000 Years of Crisis." The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game. pp. 1-26. 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." Link
• Miller, G. Tyler. (1975). Living in the Environment. "Kilocalories per Person per Day." Link
• Heilbroner, Robert. (1999). "The Economic Revolution." The Worldly Philosophers. pp. 18-41. 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. 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. Link 30 min.
• Wikipedia. "Swing Riots." 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." 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." Link Read introduction. 5 min.
• Riversong, Robert. (2007). Summary of: Ponting, Clive A 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. (Library login required) 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. 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. 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.