Naturalist
Nature and the Human Condition
 



Course Rationale:
During this course, we will consider humanity’s relationship to
nature. We will look at different societies’ attitudes toward 
nature, and how those attitudes have changed (or failed to 
change) over time. While some have sought to exploit nature’s 
fragility, others have come to respect it. Still others have 
learned to revere the power nature continues to exert despite 
humanity’s attempts to negate it.

Prospective Book and Source List:
Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
A Whale for the Killing, Farley Mowat
A Good Day to Die, Jim Harrison
The River Why, David James Duncan
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Norman Maclean
Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, John Muir
Selected Writings, Ansel Adams
"Everything Is a Human Being," Alice Walker
"Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost
"Acquainted with the Night," Robert Frost
"The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost
"The Fish," Elizabeth Bishop
"Filling Station," Elizabeth Bishop
"Ode to a Nightingale," John Keats
"Traveling Through the Dark," William Stafford 
The Color of Paradise
The World of Apu

With Further Selections From:
Steep Trails, John Muir
Our National Parks, John Muir
Nature Writings, John Muir
The Tourist in Yosemite, Stanford E. Demars
Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman