Syllabus
Economic History of Europe and the World
Economics 618
Spring 2009
Professor: John Willoughby
Office: Roper 106
Office Hours: Monday and Thursday, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Phone: 202-885-3759
e-mail: jwillou@american.edu
Assignments
There will be four assigned essays, which should be between 7 and 10 double-spaced
pages in length. I will count the two highest grades on these essays. The essays must be
in on time. I will accept no late papers. If you miss one assignment, simply make sure
that you turn in at least two. The essays will count for 50% of the grade. The grade on
the final exam or a research paper on an approved topic will have a 30% weight. Finally,
students will be expected to make at least one presentation of an assigned journal article.
The student should prepare discussion questions and provide a short introduction to the
paper. This will count for 10% of your grade. Attendance and class participation will
count for the final 10% of the grade. It is not possible to get an A in this class without
regular attendance and engaged participation.
Week I: January 12: Introduction. Classic Theories of History: Smith and Marx
Readings in class.
Week II: January 26: Contemporary Theories of History and Change
Jack Knight, Institutions and Social Conflict, pp. 1- 47, 84-122
G.A. Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defense, pp. 134174
Douglass North, Understanding the Process of Economic Chang,
Chapters 1 – 5.
Week III: February 2: An Old Debate on the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism
T.H. Aston and C.H.E. Philpin, The Brenner Debate, pp. 1 – 137.
Week IV: February 9: Recent Work on Early Modern Economies
Mats Olson, “Manorial Labor and Corvee Labor in Southern
Sweden, 1650-1850”, Economic History Review (August 2006).
E.A. Wrigley, “The Transition to an Advanced Organic
Economy: Half a Millennium of English Agriculture”, Economic
History Review (August 2006).
Stephen Broadbery and Bishupriya Gupta, “The Early Modern
Great Divergence: Wages, Prices and Economic Development,
Economic History Review (February 2006).
Clark and Hamilton, “Survival of the Richest”, Journal of
Economic History (September 2006).
Essay #1 Due
Week V: February 16: Theories of Technological Change and the Industrial Revolution
Joel Mokyr, “The Intellectual Origins of Modern Economic
Growth, Journal of Economic History (June 2005).
Joel Mokyr, “The New Industrial Revolution and the New
Economic History”, in The Economics of the Industrial
Revolution, edited by J. Mokyr, pp. 1-52.
Donald McCloskey, “The Industrial Revolution 1780-1860: A
Survey”, in Mokyr, pp. 53-118.
N.F.R. Crafts, “Industrial Revolution in England and France:
Some thoughts on the Question “Why Was England First”, in
Mokyr, pp. 119-131.
W.W. Rostow, “No Random Walk: A Comment on ‘Why Was
England First?’, in Mokyr, pp. 132-134.
Crafts, “Reply”, pp. 135-136.
Week VI: February 23: The Industrialization Revolution and the Standard of Living
Debate
Jason Long, “Rural-Urban Migration and Socioeconomic Mobility
in Victorian Britain”, Journal of Economic History (March 2005).
Trevor D. Logan, “Nutrition and Well-Being in the Late 19th
Century”, Journal of Economic History (June 2006).
Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson, “English Workers’
Living Standards During the Industrial Revolution: A New Look”,
in Mokyr, pp. 177-205
E.G. West, “Literacy and the Industrial Revolution”, in Mokyr, pp.
227Gregory Clark, “Factory Discipline”, Journal of Economic History
54 (March 1994).
Stephen Nicholas and Deborah Oxley, “The Living Standards of
Women during the Industrial Revolution, 1795-1820”, Economic
History Review 46 (1993): 723-749.
Week VII: March 2: Late Industrialization: The Gerschenkron Hypothesis in
Retrospective
Alexander Gerschendron, “Economic Backwardness in Historical
Perspective, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962, pp. 1-71.
William Summerhile “Big Social Savings in a Small Laggard
Economy: Railroad-Led Growth in Brazil”, Journal of Economic
History (March 2005).
Alfonso Herranz-Locan, “Railroad Impact in Backward
Economies, Spain, 1850-1913”, Journal of Economic History
(December 2006).
Sevket Pamuk, “Estimating Economic Growth in the Middle East
since 1820”, Journal of Economic History (September 2006).
Essay #2 Due
Week VIII: March 16: The Impact of Imperialism and Empire
Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
Willoughby, Capitalist Imperialism, Crisis and the State
P. L Cottrell, British Overseas Investment in the Nineteenth
Century
Week IX: March 23: The Impact of Imperialism and Empire
Marc Flandreau and Clemens Jobet, “The Ties that Divide: A
Network Analysis of the International Monetary System, Journal
of Economic History (December 2005).
Kris James Mitchener and Weidenmier, “Empire, Public Goods
and the Roosevelt Corollary”, Journal of Economic History
(September 2005.
Ferguson and Schularich, “The Empire Effect”, Journal of
Economic History (June 2006).
M. Shahid Alam, Poverty from the Wealth of Nations, pp. 70-180.
.
Week X: March 30: The Breakdown of Liberal Capitalism
Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters, pp. 1-99; 222-316.
Buchheim and Scherner, “The Role of Private Property in the Nazi
Economy: The Case of Industry, Journal of Economic History (June
2006)
Essay #3 Due
Week XI: April 9: The Soviet Experiment
Alec Nove, The Economic History of the Soviet Union, pp. 1 – 225.
Harrison and Kim, “Plans, Prices and Corruption: The Soviet Firm
under Partial Centralization, 1930 to 1990, Journal of Economic
History (March 2006).
Week XIII: April 16: Reconstructing the World Economy
Alan Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, pp. 1 – 125
and pp. 282 – 361
Week XIII: April 23: The Golden Age of Capitalism?
Andrew Glyn, Alan Hughes, Alain Lipietz, and Ajit Singh, “The
Rise and Fall of the Golden Age”, in The Golden Age of
Capitalism, ed. By Steven Marglin, pp.l39-125.
Alan Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe, pp. 362 –
490
Essay #4 Due
Week XIV: April 30: Presentation of Research papers
Final Exam: May 7
Note: It is possible to replace the final examination with a 20 page research paper on an
approved topic. Those who write a research paper (which is strongly encouraged) will
present an abstract of their papers during the last class. The research paper must be on an
economic historical topic, which is defined as the systematic study of an economic
process which occurred at least fifteen years ago.