On October 28th 2019, Professor Fu Chengshuang, a full-time researcher of the World Modern History Research Center and Associate Dean of the School of History of Nankai University, was a guest at the School of History and Sociology of Chongqing Normal University, and made a theme for the teachers and students of the school: From the perspective of environmental history
Of American Modernization.
Professor Fu Chengshuang introduced related concepts such as modernization and environmental history, as well as corresponding interpretations in the academic world.
Taking the Slater Spinning Mill, the cradle of American industrialization, as an entry point, he pointed out that among the environmental costs that the United States has paid in the process of modernization, the environmental tests brought about by western development, industrialization and urbanization are the most profound.
Professor Fu pointed out that with the rise of environmentalism at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the concepts of development and protection began to compete.
From the “conquest of nature” in the Arcordia tradition to the resource conservation movement in the progressive period, Roosevelt’s Environmental New Deal and the rise of postmodern environmentalism, Americans’ environmental outlook has experienced a shift from “individual centrism” to “ecological
The change of centrism.
Professor Fu also explained the environmental history of sustainable development, harmony between man and nature, traditional ecological wisdom and ecological modernization.
In this lecture, Professor Fu Chengshuang explored the deep-seated relationship between American modernization and the changes in environmental history with a macro vision and a critical spirit.
In the final question and answer session, Professor Fu answered the conceptual questions of modernization and modernity raised by the students, and emphasized that the students must have an apprenticeship and think about problems at all times.