Europe and Capitalism: A Cultural History
EUH 5934
Dr. Sheryl Kroen
219 Keene-Flint Hall
stkroen@ufl.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 1-4 PM
Class: Tuesday, 6:15-9:10 PM
Keene- Flint 13
Description: This course will explore the cultural history of capitalism in Europe since
the 17th century. Divided into four parts we will study: 1) The Building Blocks of
Capitalist Culture (17C); 2) The Heroes and Narratives of Capitalism (18C); 3) The
Triumph of Capitalist Culture (19C); 4) The Crisis and Rebirth of Capitalism (20C).
Secondary readings offer different approaches to a cultural history of capitalism from
literary critics, anthropologists, and historians of Europe, the Atlantic, and the United
States. However, the course is designed primarily around primary sources including
seminal writings in political economy (by John Locke, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Walter
Benjamin), in anthropology (by Karl Polanyi), as well as novels (by Daniel Defoe and
Jules Verne), films (from the Marshall Plan era), and political and economic treatises
written during the postwar economic recovery (by T.H. Marshall, F. Hayek, Jean
Fourastié, W. W. Rostow).
Requirements: Students are expected to participate actively in seminar. To facilitate this
process, students will write 1-page reviews of each week’s reading 8 out of the 13
weeks that we have common readings. In addition each student will co-lead a
seminar twice during the semester. This task involves: 1) developing a brief, 1-2 page
bibliography on a suggested topic related to the week’s reading, to be handed out to
fellow students; 2) reading one additional book from this bibliography and writing a onepage review of the book, and discussing this book as part of the week’s in-class
presentation; 3) opening up the seminar discussion with a few critical questions raised by
the readings. In addition to this regular preparation for class discussion, students are
expected to write three papers integrating the semester’s readings: 1) a paper of 7-10
pages (due on October 12) on the cultural history of early capitalism; 2) a paper of 7-10
pages (due on November 9) on the nineteenth century; 3) a paper of 7-10 pages (due on
Dec. 7) on the cultural history of capitalism (any period, including, if you like, a followup to one of the earlier papers). The last day of class, December 4, students will give
an oral presentation on this final paper.
Required Reading: Books available at Gatortextbooks, Inc. (behind Calico Jacks, in
Creekside Mall; 3501 SW 2nd Ave., Suite D, 374-4500), and on 2-hour reserve at Library
West. Articles and chapters and excerpts are available on electronic reserve. You will
need to register on ARES in order to access these readings.
Available for purchase at Gatortextbooks:
Martha C. Howell, Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600 (Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American
Thought, 1550-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Syllabus, Kroen, page 1
William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New
England (NY: Hill and Wang, 1983)
Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade (NY:
Basic Books, 2002)
Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests: The Political Arguments for
Capitalism before its Triumph (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977)
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (any edition, as long as it is true to original 1719)
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (Modern Library edition preferred)
Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the
Enlightenment (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001)
Karl Marx, Capital (Penguin edition preferred)
Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2002)
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space
in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)
Jules Verne, Mysterious Island (Any edition true to original
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our
Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001, orig. 1944)
Gilbert Rist, The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith
(London: Zed Books, 1997), translated by Patrick Camiller.
Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the semester if you have any
individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom
accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office
(www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/). The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the
student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting
accommodation.
In writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use words, phrases,
ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else’s work. Failure to give
credit by quoting and/or footnoting is PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. Please review
the University’s honesty policy at www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/.
Week-by-week assignments: I can be flexible about some of the specific readings for
individual weeks. If you are interested in molding this course to your particular
specialization (another continent, for example), I can help you design a reading list
that would complement the readings suggested below.
Tuesday, Aug. 28:
Introduction
Tues., Sept. 4::
A cultural history of capitalism, some ideas from "before"
Martha C. Howell, Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600 (Cambridge
University Press, 2010). Read Introduction and afterward carefully, choose one or two
chapters/case studies to read carefully.
Syllabus, Kroen, page 2
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American
Thought, 1550-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), read entire
There are MANY works on the early modern period that would work to begin our
conversation. If you have a favorite you would like to propose please do so.
I. Building Blocks of Liberal Capitalist Culture: (17C)
Tues., Sept. 11: Property and Improvement in the Anglo-American Tradition
John Locke, “On Property,” in Two Treatises on Government
On line: http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtr05.htm
William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New
England, (NY: Hill and Wang, 1983), especially chapters 2, “Landscape and Patchwork,”
19-33; 4, “Bounding the Land,” 54-81; and 8, “That Wilderness Should Turn a Mart,”
159-170.
Uday Singh Mehta, “Strategies: Liberal Conventions and Imperial Exclusions” in
Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 46-76
Tues., Sept. 18: The Slave Trade, The Atlantic, The View from Nantes
Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade (NY:
Basic Books, 2002) ENTIRE
Richard Drayton, “The Collaboration of Labor: Slaves, Empires, and Globalizations in
the Atlantic World, ca. 1600-1850,” in Globalization in World History, Ed. A.G. Hopkins
(NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 2002), pp. 99-115.
Choose one from the following list: (all on reserve)
Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (NY:
Penguin Books, 1985)
Charlotte Sussman, Consuming Anxieties: Consumer Protest, Gender, and British
Slavery, 1713-1833 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), chapter 4, “Women and
the Politics of Sugar, 1792.”
Ian Baucom, Specters of the Atlantic: finance capital, slavery, and the philosophy of
history (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005)
Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (NY: Viking, 2007)
Syllabus, Kroen, page 3
There are many books that have been written in Atlantic history, Latin American
History, African History, Imperial History, and world history (many using "new
biography") that treat the slave trade, piracy, and individual commodities. You are
welcome to choose one of these instead.
II. Heroes and Narratives of Doux (Gentle) Commerce (18C)
Tues., Sept. 25: Heroes and Heroines
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (orig. 1719)
Daniel Defoe, "The Complete English Tradesman," excerpts (1727)
We'll divide up the following, with everyone reading one:
Ian Watt, “Robinson Crusoe as Myth,” from Essays in Criticism: A Quarterly Journal of
Literary Criticism (Aril 1951): 95-119; reprinted and revised in Daniel Defoe Robinson
Crusoe: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism (A Norton Critical Edition) (NY:
W.W. Norton and Co., 1994), pp. 288-305.
Martin Green, Dreams of Adventure, Deeds of Empire (NY: Basic Books, Inc., 1979),
Chapter 1, “Modern Empire, Caste, and Adventure,” pp. 3-35.
Joyce Appleby, “New Cultural heroes in the early national period,” in Haskell and
Teichgraeber, The Culture of the Market (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996), pp. 163-188.
Nancy Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel (Oxford
University Press, 1987), Chapter 2, “The Rise of the Domestic Woman,” pp. 59-95; 269273.
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: women’s lives in Georgian England (New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), Chapter 4, “Prudent Economy,” pp. 127-160 (+
footnotes for these pages).
There are MANY books that treat this subject in other national contexts, defining
and explaining the emergence of other "capitalist characters." You are welcome to
suggest alternatives if they are more suitable to your specialty.
Tues., Oct. 2: Arguments for Capitalism before its Triumph (and more heroes)
Doux Commerce
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776): Book I, chapter 2; chapter 5; chapter 8;
conclusion, chapter 11; Book II, Chapter III; Book III, entire.
Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1977) or "Rival Views of Market Society," in Rival Views of Markety Society and
Syllabus, Kroen, page 4
Other Recent Essays (orig., 1986, republished, Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1992): pp. 105-141.
You can also consult Montesquieu, the chapters related to “On Commerce,” in Spirit of
the Laws, which is available on line.
Not so Doux Commerce
Anoush Terjanian, Commerce and its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political
Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) --this is due out in late
September; I will have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it. She is also sending me an
article that I will add to our syllabus. She takes on Hirschman's characterization of
Commerce as "doux" in the 18C by analyzing the following long-neglected text that in its
time it was more widely read than Adam Smith.
Abbé Raynal, A philosophical and political history of the settlements and trade of the
Europeans in the East and West Indies. (various editions from 1770s)
Full text is available on line, see UF libraries to find "ebook".
OR--I have a pdf of the following excerpt:
Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal, "A Philosophical and Political History of the
Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies," excerpts from
Commerce, Culture and Liberty: Readings on Capitalism before Adam Smith, edited by
Henry C. Clark (Indianapolis: The Liberty Fund, 2003): 610-623.
START READING GASKELL’S NORTH AND SOUTH—IT’S LONG!!!
Tues., Oct. 9: Some Cultural and Intellectual Historians on this juncture
Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the
Enlightenment (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), entire.
Margot Finn, chapters 1, “Fictions of debt and credit, 1740-1914,” 25-63; and 6, ‘From
courts of conscience to county courts: small-claims litigation in the nineteenth century,”
236-277, and conclusion, 317-327, The Character of Credit: Personal Debt in English
Culture, 1740-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Friday, October 12: Paper 1 Due
IV. Capitalism Triumphant
Tues., Oct. 16: Middle Class Subjects
Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class,
1780-1850
Syllabus, Kroen, page 5
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Tues., Oct. 23: Narratives of Capitalism, the Industrial City, the working class
subject, slavery?
Marx, Capital, Part III, Chapter 10, “The Working Day; Part VIII, “So-called Primitive
Accumulation.”
Friedrich Engels, Condition of the English Working Class, excerpts of your choice from
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/
Catherine Gallagher, The Industrial Reformation of Fiction: Social Discourse and
Narrative Form, 1832-1867, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), chapter on
North and South and Gaskell.
Start reading Mysterious Island—it’s long!
Tues., Oct. 30: Modern Capitalist Subjectivity: Industrialization and
Commodification
Marx, Capital, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 4. “The Fetishism of the Commodity and its
Secret,”
Walter Benjamin, Arcades Project. Everyone should read: “Paris Capital of the 19th
Century.” We will divide up the convolutes between us.
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space
in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: UC Press, 1977)
Additional readings for those interested: Simmel, Durkheim, Weber.
Tues., Nov. 6: More heroes (the can-do engineer!), spectacles, and other celebrations
of the age of capital
Jules Verne, Mysterious Island (A Robinsonade for imperial Europe)
Choose either Great Exhibitions or Department Stores, and read one or two chaptesr
or articles.
Great Exhibitions:
1851: Paul Young, Globalization and the Great Exhibition: The Victorian New World
Order (NY, London: Palgrave, 2009)
Syllabus, Kroen, page 6
1889: Debora L. Silverman, "The Crisis of Bourgeois Individualism," Oppositions 1977,
vol. 8, p.70-91 (on Exhibition of 1889)
1900: Rosalind Williams, Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in Late Nineteenth-Century
France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), chapter 3, “Dream World of
Mass Consumption,” pp. 58-106. (on the Paris Exhibition of 1900)
1900: Chapter 1 in Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive
Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), on 1900 Exhibition.
Department store:
Michael B. Miller, The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 18691920 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), chapter V, “Selling Consumption,”
pp. 165-189.
There is a vast, interesting literature on world fairs and also on department stores. If you
would like to choose a book or article more suited to your own research interests I can
help you identify one.
Friday, Nov. 9: Paper 2 due.
4) The Crisis and Rebirth of Capitalism (20C)
Tues., Nov. 13: Some postwar voices
For students unfamiliar with 20C European History, read the following for a good
general overview of the crisis of capitalism, esp. chapter 4:
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century, chapters 4, “The Crisis of
Capitalism”, 104-137; 6, “Blueprints for the Golden Age,” 182-211; chapter 9,
“Democracy Transformed: Western Europe, 1950-75,” 286-326; chapter 10, “The Social
Contract in Crisis,” 327-360.
All read:
Capitalism and the Rise of Fascism:
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our
Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001, orig. 1944)
Capitalism as the antidote to totalitarianism:
Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944)
chapter 1, “The Abandoned Road,” pp. 10-23; and chapter 7, Economic Control and
Totalitarianism,” pp. 88-100.
T.H. Marshall, “Citizenship and Social Class,” originally published in Class, Citizenship,
and Social Class (NY: Doubleday, 1963). (pdf available)
Syllabus, Kroen, page 7
Students particularly interested in France or Germany may replace T.H. Marshall
with the following, all of which are on reserve:
1) France: Jean Fourastié, Le Grand espoir du XXe siècle: progrès technique, progrès
économique, progrès social (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1950) or Les Trente
Glorieuses: La Révolution Invisible, (1979)
2) Germany: Ludwig Erhard, Prosperity through Competition (NY: Prager, 1958)
Tues., Nov. 20: The Recovery: The reinvention of Doux Commerce
Chapters 1, 2, and 4 of my book, The Recovery: the Reinvention of Western Civilization
after WWII. (I'll give you the text in mss.)
Primary sources: George Marshall speech announcing the Marshall Plan; Robinson
Charley film treatment, Plan for Europe Train; Films in class
Tues., Nov. 27: The Legacy of the Recovery:
Universalizing Liberal Capitalism as Civilization
W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), Chapter 2, “The Five Stages of
Growth,” pp.4-16; and Chapter 10, “Marxism, Communism and the Stages of Growth,”
pp. 145-167.
Gilbert Rist, The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith
(London: Zed Books, 1997), translated by Patrick Camiller.
Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History,” The National Interest (Summer 1989): 3-35.
http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm
Tues., December 4: Alternative Visions? Historiographical legacies and challenges?
Reading: to be determined.
I would like to plan this week's reading together. I have some ideas, such as Eric Wolf's
Europe and the People without History (1982) or Chakrabarty's Provincializing Europe,
or any number of recent articles and books about the renewed relevance of Marx. We
could look at certain topics that have received recent attention, such as the not-so-doux
18C, or the Black Atlantic. We can use this week to think through any approach you
think offers a critical perspective on the history of capitalism.
Friday, Dec. 7, Final Paper Due.
Syllabus, Kroen, page 8