This course will examine the relationship of humans, their surroundings, and the ways in which the landscape has been manipulated over time to support, inspire, protect, and provide for the cultures, communities, and civilizations that have occupied it over time.  Using the landscape and the evolution of landscape manipulation/design/architecture as a guide, we will examine prominent sites from all over the world, taking a unique approach to historical understanding. Unlike many traditional Landscape History courses, we will incorporate conversations regarding sustainability, culture, and environmental response to place and circumstance, and then look backward from today, examining precedent-setting landscapes that came before, teasing a thread from present to past that links the sustainable places of today back to the sites and ideas that contributed to their ultimate form.  For each of the places discussed, lessons to be drawn that can be adapted/applied to today’s challenges will be a constant topic of conversation.