History Matters: Links between Environmental History and Environmental Science.

Environmental History offers many themes and approaches that scientists and environmental practitioners may find useful. While the expertise of the historian often is best located in mastery of documentary evidence, historians employ many types of evidence—oral histories and artifacts, for example—as well as a wide range of theory found in and outside of the field of history. Of particular value to natural scientists and social scientists, is attention to systems theory, ecological theory, and path dependence theory.
The presentation will focus on theoretical approaches that cross disciplinary lines, relating such theory to the historian’s role as context setter, analogy maker, and trend analyst. Examples will be drawn from my work, especially The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in America from Colonial Times to the Present (Pittsburgh, 2008).