Week 1
Origins: The Colonial Era and the Atlantic Economy
SESSION Monday, May 25: 1. Introduction
2. In-class reading assignment—selections from media coverage of 2008 economic crisis
3. Discussion: American capitalism today
SESSION Tuesday, May 26: 1. Lecture: Origins of the Capitalist Epoch
Discussion: Key concepts—commodity, market, money, wage; Smith and Marx.
SESSION FOCUS READING Adam Smith, "An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations," 1776, pp. 8-21;
Marx, Karl, "Commodities" Section 1, from Capital Vol 1., 5 pp.
Marx, Karl, "The Limits of the Working Day," pp. 3, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 1.
R. Bin Wong, "The Search for European Difference and Domination in the Early Modern World: A View from Asia" 22 pp
ASSIGNMENT: Short Essay: What does Smith believe causes the wealth of nations? What does Marx believe determines what a commodity is? And the length of the working day?
SESSION Wednesday, May 27: Lecture: The Atlantic Economy and the Emergence of Racial Slavery
Discussion: The Origins of Capitalism
Workshop: Topic Proposal for Semester Paper
SESSION FOCUS READING: “The Tobacco Coast,” from Charles C. Mann, 1493
ASSIGNMENT: Discussion Questions:
How was the emerging capitalist order different from feudalism? How did the global capitalist economy emerge? What did it have to do with the New World? Why was Europe its cradle?
Why did slavery emerge? How was it related to the global economy? Why was slavery tolerated? What role did commodities such as tobacco play in the emergence of slavery and capitalism?
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS DUE: One-half page topic proposal for semester paper
SESSION Thursday, May 28 Lecture: The Coming of the American Revolution
Discussion: The American Revolution and the Colonial System
SESSION FOCUS READING
Selections from Hacker, The Triumph of American Capitalism
Selections from Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution
Primary Source: Benjamin Franklin coaches a young tradesman
ASSIGNMENT: Short Essay What were the economic and social causes of the American Revolution?
Week 2
Slavery and “Free Labor”: The Sectional Crisis and Civil War
SESSION Monday June 1: Lecture: Time is Money: The Market Revolution and the Rhythm of Everyday Life
Discussion: The Market Revolution, the transportation revolution, and the emergence of the American Economy
SESSION FOCUS READING: Selections from Sellers, The Market Revolution
"The Rise of Capitalism in the Early Republic"
Montgomery, “The Working Class of the Pre-Industrial American City , 1780-1830”
Schivelbusch, “The American Railroad”
Primary Sources: Excerpts from Seth Luther, Address to Working Men of MA, 1832 or 1833 ; Brief account of a visitor to Lowell
ASSIGNMENT: Shorty Essay: What was the market revolution? How did it change American society?
SESSION Tuesday June 2 Lecture: Southern Capitalism(?)
Discussion: Was the Southern slave-plantation system capitalism? How as it different?
Workshop: Discuss semester paper projects
SESSION FOCUS READING “The Pedestal and the Veil,” “Markets without a Market Revolution
ASSIGNMENT Reading and lecture questions: How was Southern “capitalism” different? Was it a part of, or apart from, the world capitalist system? How can we speak of capitalism where there is no wage labor?
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS DUE: Research log for semester paper project
SESSION Wednesday, June 3: Lecture: Slavery and the “Free Labor Ideology”
Discussion: The Emergence of Free Labor in the North
SESSION FOCUS READING Selections from Foner, Free Labor Ideology
Primary Sources: Voices of the Free Labor Idelogy
ASSIGNMENT Short Essay: What was the free labor ideology? How was it defined against slavery?
SESSION Thursday, June 4: Lecture: The American Civil War: The Second American Revolution
Discuss: The American Civil War
SESSION FOCUS READING Selections from James McPherson, Walter Licht, Bruce Levine
ASSIGNMENT Reading and lecture questions: Why did the North win? Why did the South lose? What role did slavery play in the southern calculations to secede? What role did slavery play in the war? How did the Civil War become “the second American Revolution?”
Week 3
American Colossus: The Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and the 1920s
SESSION Monday, June 8 Lecture: The American Civil War: Midwife to a Colossus
Discussion: The Birth of American Industrialization
SESSION FOCUS READING Brand, American Colossus, selections;
Foner, Reconstruction, selections
Primary Source: Mark Twain, The Gilded Age, selections
ASSIGNMENT Reading questions: How did the Civil War clear the path toward the American industrial revolution? Why was the US “retarded” in its development in comparison to Great Britain?
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS DUE: Research log
SESSION Tuesday, June 9 Lecture: The Crises of the New Industrial Order
Discussion: Growth and Crisis
Workshop: Discussion of Semester Paper projects
SESSION FOCUS READING Richard White, "Information, Markets, and Corruption: Transcontinental Railroads in the Gilded Age"
Montgomery, “Workers Control in America”
Primary Source: Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth,” selections
Primary Source: Eugene Debs Labor Day Message URL
Primary Source: Populist Party Platform
ASSIGNMENT Short Essay: What competing visions of American society were offered by capita (eg Carnegie) , labor (eg Debs) and farmers (eg the Populist Partt)
SESSION Wednesday, June 10 Lecture: The Way Out: The Progressive Era
Discussion: Will the Real Progressives Please Stand Up?
Film viewing: Charlie Chaplin, “Modern Times,”
SESSION FOCUS READING Montgomery, selections from “Fall of the House of Labor”
ASSIGNMENT Reading question: How did monopolization bring labor and capital into conflict?
SESSION Thursday, June 11, Lecture: The Way Out, II: Imperialism and WWI
Discussion: Finance capital and Industrial Capital
Film: Modern Times
SESSION FOCUS READING Primary Sources:
Frederick Winslow Taylor, selections, pt. 1
Frederick Winslow Taylor, scientific management II
Ford Motor Company File
Voices of imperialist ideology
ASSIGNMENT Short essay: Finance capital vs. industrial capital. How did finance capital triumph over industrial capitalism? How was the emergence of “monopoly” capitalism related to imperialism? How did the Progressive Era attempt to reign in the power of the corporations? Did it succeed or fail?
Week 4
Crash! Bust! Boom!: The American Economy in Depression, War, and Expansion, 1930s-1960s
SESSION Monday, June 15 Lecture: The Causes of the Great Depression
Discuss: Mass production and Market Crashes, then and now
Student Presentations
Complete Modern Times
SESSION FOCUS READING Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, selections
“Ethos of Mass Production”
Primary Source: Diego Rivera, "Detroit Industry",
ASSIGNMENT Essay: How do Rivera’s artwork and Chaplin’s film capture the “ethos of mass production”? What is the mood of each artist on mass production capitalism?
SESSION Tuesday, June 16 Lecture: Great Depression: Existential Crisis of American Capitalism
Discussion: The Great Depression
Student Presentations
SESSION FOCUS READING Primary Source: Selections from Studs Terkel, “Hard Times,”
Selections from, “Freedom From Fear.”
Selections from, Lichtenstein, “The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit”
Selections from Palmer, “Revolutionary Teamsters.”
ASSIGNMENT Reading questions: What were the most outstanding characteristics of the Great Depression? How did working class people respond? Did the New Deal “work”? How so? What were its limitations or failures?
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS DUE: Rough draft semester paper
SESSION Wednesday, June 17 Lecture: “War is the Health of the State”: WWII and the Resurgence of American Capitalism
Student Presentations
SESSION FOCUS READING Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, selections
Fones-Wolfe
ASSIGNMENT Reading questions: How did WWII mobilization impact the conflict between capital and Labor?
SESSION Thursday, June 18 Lecture: “The Treaty of Detroit”: The Long Boom and its Contradictions
Student Presentations
SESSION FOCUS READING Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit
McCormick, “America’s Half-Century.”
Primary Sources: Henry Luce, "The American Century" URL
Eisenhower "Farewell Address" URL
ASSIGNMENT Short Essay: What were the characteristics of the “long boom”? Read "The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit" selection. What was the Treaty of Detroit? How was it a "social contract"? Reading "The American Century" and "America's Half-Century," consider what this treaty or contract had to do with the US position in the world.
Week 5:
Rust and Money: The Decline of Industry and the Financialization of the US Economy, 1970s to the present
SESSION Monday, June 22 Lecture: The Crisis of the Postwar Order: Vietnam and the Urban Revolt
Student Presentations
Film: The Smartest Guys in the Room
SESSION FOCUS READING dissent detente decline File
Malaise
ASSIGNMENT Short essay: Why, and how, did the postwar boom come to an end?
SESSION Tuesday, June 23 Lecture: The Rise and Fall of Detroit
Discussion: The decline of industry and the rise of finance
Student Presentations
Film: The Smartest Guys in the Room
SESSION FOCUS READING American Debt
Global 1970s
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS DUE: Semester Papers Due
SESSION Wednesday, June 24 Lecture: The Financialization of the American Economy
Student Presentations
Film: The Smartest Guys in the Room
SESSION FOCUS READING US Multinational Enterprises
Selections from Capital Moves
SESSION Thursday, June 25 Lecture: The US Economy in 2014
SESSION FOCUS READING Selections from current media coverage
ASSIGNMENT In-class essay on course themes