Enduring Collective Action

Class begins with a modern documentary trailer, “River’s End: California’s Latest Water War” (Source A) on water debates in California. As they watch, students identify the individuals, groups, and institutions involved, along with their motives and goals, on a graphic organizer. With this foundation, students then explore a series of Progressive Era quotes (Source B) about natural resource use, sorting the quotes across their desks along a continuum from “preservation” to “profit”. Students could also group the quotes into corroborating or opposing viewpoints. Students finish by contemplating the enduring nature of Progressive Era issues by reading a blog post, “How a Dam Paved the Way for the National Park Service” (Source C), about the history of building a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park alongside a contemporary campaign (Source D) to remove the dam and restore the valley. Students utilize both resources to create a timeline demonstrating the pendulum of collective action when environmentalists’ long-term goals conflict with local communities’ immediate needs.