The blog of the Canadian Network in History and the Environment today carries a profile of a PhD student at Queen’s named Kristen Greer. Her PhD thesis “Red coats and wild birds: military culture and ornithology across the nineteenth-century British Empire,” interrogates the intersections between British military culture and the practices and ideas of ornithology, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean region.
Greer’s thesis is interesting because it combines, military, imperial, and environmental history. At conferences, one hears economic, political, and other historians saying “we are all environmental historians now.” This is also true for imperial historians as well.
The Past Speaks 
Hi Andrew –
“At conferences, one hears economic, political, and other historians saying “we are all environmental historians now.” This is also true for imperial historians as well.”
This has stuck in my head all day. I confess I generally go to conferences where people say “we are all environmental historians” … but that’s because they’re environmental history conferences.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m delighted – but are they really saying this?
I overheard two business historians use those exact words at a conference last month. You do see environmental history creeping into other sub-disciplines. A guy recently did a PhD at Western that combined military and environmental history– he was looking at the Pacific War. The green ink is spreading, if you will pardon the expression. Of course, I’m saying this based on my personal impressions, not hard bibliometric data or anything.
Re B-schools. Business historians are divided between those who work in history depts and scholars based in management schools, where CSR is a sexy theme right now. I suspect that the environment will get more attention in MBA programs in the near future, especially since the new dean of the Harvard Business School, Nitin Nohria, believes that ethics should be integrated of the business school curriculum, including the study of business history. HBS is a trendsetter, so you can bet your tail that there will be more research on environmental/business history topics in the future.
You may be interested in my post about the Halloran prize for the best paper on the history of Corporate Social Responsibility.