Historical Geography of North America

North American society and landscape have been shaped by powerful forces over the last 500 years: conquest, disease, war, migration, the railroad and the farmer's plow, urban growth, and industrial transformation. In the process, new regional cultures formed while older societies were profoundly changed. In this course we will examine the geography of historical change in the United States and Canada, focusing on the themes of territorial control, human settlement, the inscribing of cultural and economic systems on the land, and North Americans' attitudes toward the places they inhabit. 3 hrs. lect.