The Literature of Capitalism
Professor Thomas Easton
Thursday, 11-1:30
Broad theme: This course intertwines history, economic ideas, and literature to examine two
related questions: what enables success and at what cost.
The means: There will be weekly reading assignments, laid out roughly in chronological
order. What will be obvious is how the styles of writing shift over times, and the societies in
which they exist differ as well. What remains are the questions: what enables success, and at
what cost.
Requirements include class participations and weekly essays of two pages, with the exception
of the last assignment which requires tying together work from the semester in a longer essay
of three to five pages. As you will see below, each of the readings has a theme of its own and
I provide a question to use as the basis of your essay. If, however, you have a more
interesting idea, feel from to substitute your own. Writing short essays is an art form. One
source of possible examples is the book review section of the Economist but there are many
other publications that do this well. I also vary the approach, asking, for example, in the
second week to write a letter. Regardless of the particular form, the objective remains
consistent: for you to put forward compelling ideas that flows from one paragraph to the
next, ending in a conclusion. This flow is often easier to understand when vocalized. As a
result, on a rotating basis, several students will read their papers to the class each week. Two
students, on a rotating basis, will also be assigned to present the ideas presented by the
supplementary reading. A more detailed description of the class is included at the end of the
syllabus.
Required Texts:
Relevant books are on reserve at the Bobst Library
Equality and Efficiency (1975), Arthur Okun
Old School (2003), Tobias Wolf
Free Market Fairness (2012), John Tomasi
The Nature of The Firm (1937), Ronald Coase
South of the Slot (1909), Jack London
The Illusion of Free Markets, Bernard Harcourt
The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), George Orwell
The Great Crash (1954) J.K. Galbraith
Books
The Wealth of Nations, Book 1; Adam Smith (1776)
Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward, Horatio Alger (1867)
The Lives of Engineers, Samuel Smiles (1861)
Self Help, Samuel Smiles (1859)
The Law, Frederic Bastiat (1854)
The Overcoat, Nikolai Gogol (1842)
A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss (2000)
Where the Money Grows – Garet Garrett (1911)
Reminiscences of a Stock Market Operator –Edwin Lefevre (1923)
The Rise of David Levinsky, Abraham Cahan (1917)
The Road to Serfdom (1944; abridged version, 1972)
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (1957)
Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman
The Forgotten Man (graphic novel version, 2014),
Amity Shlaes
How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Moshin Hamid (2013)
Tiger’s Heart: the Story of a Modern Chinese Woman, Aisling Junjuan
Shen (2009)
Movie
It’s a Wonderful Life
Additional Reading
Cesar Birotteau, Honore De Balzac (1838)
Other People’s Money, Louis Brandeis (1914)
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (1906)
Babbit, Sinclair Lewis (1922)
Essays, Carnegie (1881)
The Go Go Years, John Brooks (1973)
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (2008)
Week One
Theme: The American Dream
Required reading – Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick (optional second book in the Penguin
edition: Struggling Upward. A brief and rewarding read.)
Writing assignment: This assignment is unique because you needn’t tie it to the reading, and
you are free to use any outside sources that you find. The question, which will implicitly be
revisited in many ways during the semester, is why does a company exist. Feel free to dismiss
the entire notion of a company and argue that it is a mistake, if that is what you believe.
There is no need to take a position you think might overlap with another persons. The point
of the paper is to think about a social structure that resembles, but is not the same, as a city
or a country or a religious hierarchy, and set out why you think it exists. You will revisit this
question in week eleven.
Week Two
Theme: The rise of big business
Required Reading: Self Help and The Lives of Engineers, Samuel Smiles
Packet: Brief excerpt from Adam Smith (presentation by students)
Writing assignment: In the miraculous world of NYU Freshman Honors courses, we have
brought Mr Smiles back to life. Please write him a letter and tell him what you think about
Self Help. Feel free to contest his views, suggest why his thoughts on the structure of society
are obsolete, or, conversely, why you found his ideas are valuable.
Week Three:
Theme: The crushing weight of capitalism
Added reading: brief excerpts from The Illusion of Free Markets, Harcourt; Capital in the TwentyFirst Century, Piketty; Lords of Finance, Liaquat Ahamed (presentation by students)
Required Reading: The Overcoat, Nikolai Gogol
Atlas Shrugged, Part 1
Writing Assignment: This book looks with a harsh eye on the state, on business, and on
humanity. Imagine that you ran into the protagonist in Washington Square Park. How would
you reorder his life? How would you reorder his surroundings? Can he be saved?
Week four
Theme: The rise of finance
1) Read first: excerpt from Lombard Street (Walter Bagehot) (presentation by students)
2) Then: A conspiracy of paper (David Liss) which is historical fiction tied to the infamous
18th century South Sea Company.
Writing: none. Instead, continue reading Atlas Shrugged.
Week Five
Theme: Different responses to the plight of immigrant labor
Reading
South of the Slot – Jack London
The Rise of David Levinski (thru page 215. Stop where “Dora” begins)
Writing assignment, 1 page: How do these readings treat the responsibilities of workers to
their employees, and what are the consequence? Are the characters moral? Immoral?
Criminals?
Week Six
Theme: Wall Street characters
Where the Money Grows by Garet Garrett, a literary giant of the first half of the twentieth
century who has largely been forgotten. The characters in this short book are seen as
recognizable in any era, albeit in slightly modified versions.
Writing assignment, 1 page: Are these men villains or heroes? Are they necessary?
Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, first half
Week Seven
Theme: Wall Street failure, with a twist
Excerpts from the The Great Crash, J.K. Galbraith, (presentation by students)
Excepts from Road to Wigan Pier (presentation by students).
Primary reading: Where are the Customer’s yachts, (Fred Schwed)
Schwed’s book is considered to be a small masterpiece, looking at the details that collectively
lead to the injustices imposed by Wall Street. But his conclusions may be closer to Alger’s
then Galbraith’s. This leads to the essay topic for the week:
Writing assignment: if you had to defend Schwed’s targets, what would you say? Or would
you merely strengthen his attacks? (feel free, as an alternative to a defense, to do this).
Week Eight
Theme: the impact of government
The Forgotten Man, graphic novel, Amity Shlaes
Shlaes’s book in a twist on the conventional history of the 1930s. The assignment is to write
a review.
Additional reading: Atlas Shrugged, Part 2, second half.
Week Nine
Theme: Hollywood’s portrayal of capitalism
Required watching: movie: It’s a wonderful life (1946).
This movie is cited constantly and the existence of small banks is often attributed to its
message. Is this appropriate, or insane?
Assignment: is there any defense for Potter’s demands, or flaw in George Bailey’s actions?
Week Ten
Theme: capitalism verses statism
Atlas Shrugged, Part 3
Old School (Tobias Wolf) excerpt.
Wolf’s narrator is besotted with Rand and then meets her, coming away with a different
impression.
Writing assignment: what do you think of his initial view? His second view? Do you have a
third?
Week Eleven
Theme: Economists defending capitalism
Hayek – Road to Serfdom (presentation by students)
Coase – Theory of the firm (presentation by students)
Writing assignment: please rewrite your assignment from week one, positing why you think a
company exists (or why it should not).
Theme for the final three weeks: Horatio Alger in the 2000s (and Asia) tied to three
countries, first Pakistan, then India, then China
Week Twelve
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013).
This book was hugely controversial in Pakistan, as was next week’s reading in India.
Writing assignment: Why did the book end as it did? Could you, or would you, structure an
alternative?
Week Thirteen
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (2008)
Writing assignment: Is the character moral?
Week fourteen
Tiger’s Heart: the Story of a Modern Chinese Woman. Aisling Juanjuan Shen
What does her rise say about capitalism and law? How would you compare this book to the
many others read during the semester that involve similar themes?
Course Policies
Attendance
Attendance is Mandatory. Two unexcused absences and your advisor will be
contacted and may affect your grade. If you miss a class, reading is still required.
Please do not email to ask about material.
Computers are not permitted in class; emails can be checked only during the break.
Coffee or tea is fine if allowed by NYU. So too is food, as long as it is not vexing to
classmates.
Lateness
Please be prompt. Lateness will trigger penalties to your grade.
Readings
These are essential. We will have discussions and you are expected to contribute
every week, with your comments comprising 10% or your grade. The other 90% will
be from the weekly writing assignments, which will be one to two pages in length.
On a rotating basis, they will be read aloud by their authors in an effort to promote
compelling narratives. The supplementary reading will be brief and typically contain
a big idea by a significant thinker. These are required reading, but on a rotating
basis, pairs of students will be assigned to present on specific articles.
Goals of the class: to become conversant with crucial ideas and writers, develop
writing skills and distill deeper insights into a critical aspect of the world.
This a full four-point course constructed around an idea that has been at the center of
incendiary debate throughout recorded history and doubtless before. It will not attempt to
be encompassing, nor even a survey. Instead, it should serve as an intellectual appetizer
comprised of fine writers and difficult insights that may serve as a foundation for thoughts
that you may have that continue to evolve for the rest of your lives. Among the ancillary
benefits is that you will confront the words of authors who are commonly cited but rarely
read. This by itself will prove helpful in understanding many of the larger debates about how
a society should be organized, but this is just a first step. The writings in this course have
thrown light on difficult subjects, and in the process intrigued, enraged and inspired many
extraordinarily bright people. By the end of the course, you may find yourself included in
this distinguished group. Beyond all this, many of the books are, by themselves, riveting.
They talk of not only societal costs and benefits, but personal costs and benefits. These are
often excluded equation in conventional economic studies but they are at the core of any
economic and political system, and at the core of wrenching literature.