Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History
One-Day Workshop
6.5 Hours
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
 Introduce the workshop leaders.
 Provide an overview of the workshop. Describe the schedule of the day’s
activities.
 Ask the workshop participants to introduce themselves.
2. What Does Economics Contribute to History (30 minutes)
 Explain that the student achievement levels in history are often criticized.
Perhaps introducing students to the economic way of thinking in history may
strengthen the teaching of history.
 Show the PowerPoint slides from the file titled: How Economics Can Strengthen
the Teaching of History. This presentation provides an overview of the problems
that face U.S. history teachers. It explains how stressing the economic way of
thinking can be a powerful way to improve the teaching and learning of history.
The presentation also includes an overview of the Table of Contents.
3. Introduction to the Economic Way of Thinking (30 Minutes)
 Explain that Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History identifies explicit
problems in U.S. history and then uses the economic way of thinking as illustrated
by the six principles in the Guide to Economic Reasoning as a way to solve the
problem or, at least, to better understand people’s choices. Show the PowerPoint
slides from the file titled: Introduction to the Economic Thinking. Solve the
mystery of why the American colonists fought a revolution when they were safe,
prosperous and free.
4. Demonstration of Lesson 5, Why Sell Yourself into Bondage? (30 minutes)
 Demonstrating Lesson 5 is an easy way to show the participants the power of
applying economic thinking to historical problems. Many workers in colonial
North America were indentured servants—people who signed contracts stating
they would work for up to seven years in exchange for passage to North America.
Some historians have likened indentured servitude to slavery. But for a period of
time from about 1650 to 1780 young men and women from England eagerly
committed themselves to terms of indentured servitude for work to be performed
in the North American colonies. Why would people accept difficult jobs that they
could not quit? Why would they sell themselves into bondage?
 Show the PowerPoint slides 1 to 4 from the file titled: Indentured Servants.
 Distribute and discuss Activity 5.1 A Contract for an Indentured Servant.
 Distribute and discuss Activity 5.2. This is a primary source document of an
indentured servant contract.
 Distribute Activity 5.3. This is series of case studies of individuals who signed
indentured servant contracts. Divide the participants into groups. Assign each
group one case study. Ask them to discuss the costs and benefits that faced each
individual. Ask each group to explain their analysis. You may wish to display
PowerPoint slides 5 and 6 in Indentured Servants to guide the discussion.
5. Break (15 minutes)
6. Demonstration of Lesson 3, Why Do Economies Grow? (45 minutes)
 Lesson 3 introduces the basic characteristics of a market economy. Show the
PowerPoint slides 1 to 15 from the file titled: Why Do Economies Grow? These
slides contain expanded versions of Visuals 1 and 2 in Lesson 3. Explain that it
would be easy to suppose that rich nations are rich because they possess natural
resources, and that poor nations are poor because they lack natural resources. But
many nations holding vast stores of natural resources are poor, and other nations
lacking in natural resources are wealthy. Economists place little emphasis on
natural resources in explaining economic growth. Instead, they stress the role of
economic systems and institutions. Spanish and English colonial history provides
a lesson on the importance of economic systems and institutions.
 Distribute Activity 3.1 and Display PowerPoint slides 16 to18 in Why Do
Economies Grow? These slides explain the relationship between certain
economic institutions and economic growth including private property rights,
physical capital, human capital, investment, and infrastructure.
 Tell the participants that they have been appointed to a panel to make
recommendations on how people living on another planet should develop their
economy. Distribute Activity 3.2 and ask participants to read the information and
respond to the questions for discussion. You may wish to show PowerPoint slides
19 to 24 in Why Do Economies Grow? to guide the activity.
7. Lunch (45 minutes)
8. Constitutional Period: Demonstration of Lessons 8 and 9 (45 minutes)
 Explain that Americans faced severe problems after the Revolutionary War.
Urgent economic questions remained to be addressed. Show PowerPoint slides 1
to 9 in the file titled Economics of the Constitution. These slides illustrate the
issues that emerged under the Articles of Confederation. They were adapted from
Lesson 8 Problems under the Articles of Confederation.
 To address the economic issues under the Articles of Confederation, the founders
convened the Constitutional Convention. From May until September 1787, 55
delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia for “the sole and
express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.” Instead, they decided
to write a new Constitution.
 Show PowerPoint slides 10 and 11 from the file titled: Economics of the
Constitution. Explain that many nations have adopted written constitutions but
have failed nonetheless to grow economically. How is it that the U.S. Constitution
became an effective force in promoting economic growth within a market system?
 Show PowerPoint slides 12 to 15 from Economics of the Constitution. Explain
that the founders were familiar with the scholarly writing of the period.
Constitution they wrote embodied important ideals of economic freedom, as
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envisioned by Adam Smith in The Wealth the Nations, and created the possibility
for the United States to emerge as a strong, dynamic market economy.
Distribute Activity 9.1 The Constitution: Rules for the Economy to the
participants. Divide the participants into groups and assign each group one clause
from the Constitution as presented in Activity 9.1. They should formulate an
answer to the situation presented. After the groups have had a few minutes of
discussion, show PowerPoint slides 15 to 20 to guide the whole-group discussion
to their responses to the situations in Activity 9.1.
9. Demonstration of Lesson 10 Rising Living Standards in the New Nation: (20
minutes)
 Show PowerPoint slides 1 to 5 in the file titled: Rising Living Standards in the
New Nation file. Ask the participants to speculate on why the nation’s standard
of living improved in the early 19th century.
 Follow the directions in procedure 3 of Lesson 10 to play a brief productivity
simulation. Show PowerPoint slides 6 and 7 to illustrate the simulation.
10. An Economic Analysis of the U.S. Civil War: A Demonstration of Lessons 18
and 19 (30 minutes)
 Show PowerPoint slides 1 to 5 from the file titled: Economics of the Civil War.
Point out that in light of the economic advantages of the North over the South, it
seems almost irrational for the South to have engaged the North militarily. Why
did the South secede?
 Show PowerPoint slides 6 to 9. Explain that for decades, the United States had
considered alternatives for dealing with slavery. Each entailed a set of costs and
benefits. Some proposed compromises to limit its spread. The Missouri
Compromise of 1820 was an example of a solution that lasted for several years.
Others proposed various forms of emancipation of slaves including federal
compensation to slave owners. The South faced alternatives regarding the future
of slavery. Economic reasoning suggests that the South believed it was choosing
the most advantageous combination of benefits over costs in deciding to fight.
 Show PowerPoint slides 10 to 16 from the file titled: Economics of the Civil War.
Point out that the Civil War ended slavery and the possibility of southern
secession. But did the war help or impede economic growth the United States?
The evidence suggests that the costs of the war were, indeed, very high.
10. The Development of the Industrial United States: Demonstration of Lesson 23
(30 minutes)
 Explain that the character of the United States economy changed late in the
nineteenth century. Manufacturing, rather than agriculture, became its central
feature. Lesson 23: Bigger is Better: The Economics of Mass Production stresses
the characteristics of mass production and demonstrates that increasing output
lowers the cost of producing most goods.
 Explain that the United States economy changed dramatically in the period
following the Civil War. Show PowerPoint slides 1 to 3 from the file titled:
Industrial Development. Note that business itself changed during this time.
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Various ways were tried to increase the size of businesses, including trusts and
holding companies. Size appears to be important, but why? Why were big
businesses able to produce many kinds of goods and services more cheaply than
small businesses?
Show PowerPoint slides 4 to 11 from the file titled: Industrial Development to
illustrate the characteristics of mass production and to demonstrate how the rise of
big businesses after the Civil War benefited the American economy when those
large firms produced more goods and services at lower costs. Show Slides 7 to
10. This is a demonstration that is presented in procedures 8 to 12 of Lesson 23
Bigger is Better: The Economics of Mass Production.
Distribute Activity 23.1 of Lesson 23 Bigger is Better: The Economics of Mass
Production and allow the participants to read how Andrew Carnegie applied the
ideas of mass production. Show PowerPoint slide 11 to guide the discussion of
Activity 23.1.
11. Whatdunnit? The Great Depression Mystery: Demonstration of Lesson 30 (45
minutes)
 Show PowerPoint slides 1 to 4 from the file titled: Whatdunnit? Explain that the
American economy went from unprecedented prosperity in the 1920s to
unprecedented misery in the 1930s. It was an extraordinary reversal. Why did it
occur?
 Distribute the Occupation Cards from Activity 30.2. Follow procedures 2 to 11 in
Lesson 30 Whatdunnit: The Great Depression Mystery and show PowerPoint
slides 5 to 9 to guide the participants through a brief simulation activity which
shows how unemployment in one part of the economy can lead to unemployment
in other parts of the economy and explains the business cycle.
 Show PowerPoint slides 10 and 11. Explain that the primary reason that a mild
recession in 1929 became the Great Depression of the 1930s was the dramatic rise
in bank failures, which led to a significant reduction in the amount of money that
was available to buy goods and services. The Federal Reserve System had been
established in 1913 in part to prevent bank failures by lending reserves to banks
that were experiencing unusual high cash withdrawals. On the eve of the
Depression, many of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks hesitated to lend to
banks that they considered unsound in their districts. Many banks thus were
allowed to fail, and the failures caused fear among account holders in sound
banks, prompting them to panic and withdraw their funds.
 Show PowerPoint slides 12 to 15 and discuss how people would react to each
situation. The questions posed here are taken from Activity 30.3
12. Wrap Up (15 Minutes)
 Review the key features of the workshop.
 Distribute the evaluation from and allow time for the participants to complete it.
 Few history teachers have had the good fortune to have taken an economic history
course while in college. Some teachers may be unaware that standard textbooks
and other sources exist. Show PowerPoint slides 1 to 5 from the file titled Key
References and discuss these standard sources.
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Discuss any follow-up programs you may have planned.