Spring 2027

American Environmental History

A survey of American environmental history examining interactions between people and natural environments from pre-colonization to the present, focusing on ecological change, conservation, and public policy.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · William (bill) Cronon

Cronon’s course featured a heavy reading load but a manageable overall workload. Assignments included a six-page paper where students chose their own topic.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Discuss the basic questions posed by environmental history as a field and method for doing historical scholarship.

  • Evaluate the continuities and shifts between environmental politics, in relation to social and economic and racial formations and material conditions in U.S. history.

  • Communicate effectively about the relevance of the past to the environmental present through argumentative writing.

  • Assess foundational work in the historiography on environmental history.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing or 3 credits in HISTORY, GEOG or ENVIR ST

    • Sophomore standing
    • 3 credits in HISTORY, GEOG or ENVIR ST
    take one
ENVIRST/GEOG/HISTORY 460

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Sophomore standing
    • 3 credits in HISTORY, GEOG or ENVIR ST

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MATT VILLENEUVE is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WILLIAM CRONON is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2017, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · William (bill) Cronon

Students described William Cronon as an exceptional lecturer who made the material engaging and reflective. His lectures were crafted as stories that encouraged deep thinking about environmental history.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.49 GPA, 77.9% A/AB (n=68 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.64 GPA, 81.4% A/AB (n=70 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.64 GPA, 81.4% A/AB (n=70 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · William (bill) Cronon

Cronon’s course featured a heavy reading load but a manageable overall workload. Assignments included a six-page paper where students chose their own topic.

Past student reviews · William (bill) Cronon

One student found the first half of the semester boring and noted the exams were essay-style. Another student preferred papers over exams because they disliked cramming facts for tests.

Topics

  • Ecological change and human use of nature
  • Conservation history and environmental public policy
  • Environmental politics and social/economic/racial formations

Skills

  • Argumentative writing about environmental history
  • Assessment of foundational historiographical works
  • Evaluating environmental politics in historical context

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
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  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f3a246f9f6745c660ed56daed1f45fe46c9e4b5a35001dd1432fed96963da711",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}