University of British Columbia
Economic History of the United States
Economics 337 (3 credits), Term 2, 2006/7
Donald G. Paterson
Buchanan Tower 10th Floor
Office Hours: Wed. : 9 00 – 12.00
Class Buchanan 228
T., Th.: 12.30 – 14.00
This is a course in the economic history of the United States. The goal of the course is to introduce you to the key features of
historical change in the US and show how they contributed to produce the modern economy. We will specifically explore issues
of: economic growth, the changing distribution of income, technical change and industrial transformation. We will also define both
the historical uniqueness of the US economy and the common features it shared with others. The course covers the US
economy from colonial times to the mid-20th century.
The course will be graded:
Mid-term Exam (date t.b.a)
Essay Assignment (due date t.b.a)
Final Exam
Total
20%
40%
40%
100%
Some part of the Thursday sessions of the course will often be reserved for a more open class discussion of various topics
announced in advance. These will include instructions for the essay assignment.
Course Goals for Students:
1. to familiarize you with the United States economy and its historical origins;
2. to recognize the criteria that historians and economists use to identify and weigh evidence;
3. to familiarize you with the abstractions economists use when viewing the history of an economy; and
4. to use historical analysis as an effective way of understanding a highly complex economic world.
Essay Assignment. More details of this assignment are in a separate handout. In brief, you will be assigned material from an
historical database. With use of this evidence your essay will be an economic analysis of an assigned topic.
Students are reminded of the UBC policy on plagiarism - see UBC Calendar.
Plagiarism in any form will be reported to the university and all materials submitted in the course will be examined for its
presence. If you are at all concerned about proper attribution or inadvertent plagiarism, see the course instructor or teaching
assistant after having read the Faculty of Arts, Plagiarism Avoided on the Faculty website.
The university may check internet sources against the assignment submissions.
Examination: There is a final examination worth 40% of the final grade. Please do not ask for the examination to be rescheduled
on an individual basis. The only conditions under which an exam will be rescheduled individually are: 1) an examination conflict,
and 2) medical or other like circumstances accepted by the Faculty of Arts in writing.
Textbook: the text for the course is available in the UBC Bookstore:
Atack, J. and Passell, Peter (1995), A New Economic View of American History, W.W. Norton & Co., 2nd edition, New York.
[noted later as Atack & Passell].
We will cover most of the textbook, so read ahead. Since this course deals with a history with which you may not be familiar you
may wish to do some background reading. There are several good general histories of the USA available at the UBC Bookstore
(and UBC Library) that can be used to sketch the historical background of the issues of this course.
Other Assigned Readings. These may be downloaded from the course website. Note that these reading are as much part of
the course as the text and are in no sense supplementary.
Supplementary Material. In addition to the course readings, there are suggestions for further reading for those who wish to
pursue a topic in more detail. Some of these are classical readings in the field, some are works of American literature which
inform and some are new contributions. These are all noted within a black box.
UBC Library Resources. We will discuss the UBC Library resources in class in some detail.
UBC has also an extensive on-line collection of historical material such as the on-line journal collection, USA historical
databases, historical documents and newspapers. In order to use this material or download it from outside UBC (such as your
home) you will need to familiarize yourself with use of the proxy server (see the UBC Library website for detailed instructions on
how to configure your own computer).
Multi-Media Notes: All materials used in class which are not from the text or other readings, will be available as multi-media
notes on the course web page. It is vital to remember that these are not course notes. They are aids to organizing the material of
the course. These notes will be posted before class as far as possible.
Website. The course has a dedicated web site. Please check the Bulletin Board on the web site frequently as it will be used to
note any changes in the course, up-coming deadlines and to effect any urgent communication. The web site also has the all the
materials of the course including the Multi-media Page in downloadable or interactive form. There are also some useful links.
The web site address is:
http://www.econ.ubc.ca/paterson/econ337
You will need the Password (06econ337) and the ID (section1) to enter the website because it contains copyright material only
available to UBC students.
Course Outline & Readings
Please see the Multi-Media Page. Any changes to the course outline and its coverage are noted on the Multi-Media Page
and not here.
1. Introduction
Topics: The Founding of America and Its Institutional Basis.
Topic: An Overview of US Economic Growth.
Atack & Passell, Chapter 1.
K.L. Sokoloff and S.L. Engerman, “Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World,” Journal of
Economic Perspectives, (Summer 2000), pp. 217-32.
Jeffrey G. Williamson, “Globalization, Convergence, and History”, Journal of Economic History, 56 2, (Jun., 1996), 277-306.
R.J. Gordon, “U.S. Economic Growth since 1870: One Big Wave?” American Economic Review,(May 1999), pp. 123-27.
2. The Thirteen Colonies & Revolution
Topic: Indentured Service & the Labour Scarce Economy.
Topic: The Burden of the Navigation Acts.
Atack & Passell, Chapters 2 & 3 (omit section on colonial money).
A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Various pubs. & editions, vol. 1, part I, chap. 3.
R. Ransom, "British Policy and Colonial Growth: Some Implications of the Burden of the Navigation Acts", Journal of Economic
History, XXVII, No. 3 (1968), 427-35.
3. Economic Spread & Growth in the Antebellum Period
Topic: Economic Growth in the Antebellum Period, 1789-1860.
Topic: The Transport Revolution: Canals & Steamboats and Early Railroad Building.
Atack & Passell, Chapter 5, 6 & 7.
J. Mak and G.M. Walton, "Steamboats and the Great Productivity Surge in River Transportation", Journal of History, 1, No. 3
(1972), 619-40.
M. Haines, “The Population of the United States, 1790-1920,” in S.L. Engerman and R.E. Gallman (eds.), The Cambridge
Economic History of the United States, Vol. II, The Long Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 143-87.
4. Agriculture Change in the Antebellum Period
Topic: Public Domain, Land Policy and Migration.
Topic: Adoption of the Reaper.
Atack & Passell, Chapter 9 & 10.
R. Easterlin, "Population and Farm Settlement in the Northern United States", Journal of Economic History, XXXVI, No. (1976),
45-83. 3.
Michael R. Haines and Barbara A. Anderson, "New Demographic History of the Late 19th Century United States", Explorations in
Economic History, 25, No. 3 (1988), 341-65.
5. Agriculture and Slavery in the Antebellum South.
Topic: Southern Agriculture; King Cotton.
Topic: The Economics of Black Slavery.
Atack and Passell, chapter 11 & 12.
Robert Fogel, Without Consent or Contract, The Rise And Fall Of American Slavery, Norton, New York,1989.
6. Legacy, Poverty and the Golden Age
Topic: The Economic Effects of the Civil War.
Topic: Reconstruction, Carpet-Bagging and the Beginning of the Golden Age.
Atack and Passell, chapter 13 & 14.
Roger L. Ransom and Richard Sutch, “ One Kind of Freedom: Reconsidered (and Turbo Charged)”, Explorations in Economic
History, 38, 1 (January 2001), 6-39.
"The Roots of Southern Poverty" Chapter 9. in R. Ransom and R. Sutch, One Kind of Freedom, New York, Cambridge University
Press, 1977.
7. The Trans-Continental Railroads
Topic: Building a Rail System.
Topic: Agricultural Frontiers, Technical Progress and the End of the Cowboy Era.
Atack and Passell, chapters 15 (pp. 414 – 426 only) & 16. Read chapter 16 first.
R.W. Fogel, Railroads and American Economic Growth, Essays in Econometric History, (Baltimore, 1964), pp. 1-91, 207-28.
8. Industrial Growth: The American System.
Topic: Technical Change in American In ‘The American System’.
Atack and Passell, chapter 17.
G. Wright, “The Origins of American Industrial Success, 1879-1940,” American Economic Review (Sept. 1990), pp. 651-68.
L.P. Cain and D.G. Paterson, "Biased Technical Change, Scale, and Factor Substitution in American Industry, 1850 - 1919",
Journal of Economic History, XLVI, No. 1 (1986), 153-64.
R.C. Allen, "The Peculiar Productivity of American Blast Furnaces, 1840 - 1913", Journal of Economic History, XXXVII, No. 3
(1977), 605-33.
Paul David, “The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective on the Modern Productivity Paradox,” American
Economic Review, (May 1990), pp. 355-60.
9. Financing Capital Formation, Domestic & Foreign Investment.
Topic: The Emergence of a National Capital Market.
Atack and Passell, chapter 18.
John James, “The Development of the National Money Market,” Journal of Economic History, (1976).
Howard Bodenhorn & Hugh Rockoff, “Regional Interest Rates in Antebellum America,” in C. Goldin & H. Rockoff (eds.), Strategic
Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History (1992).
10. Immigration and the Labour Supply.
Topic: The Age of Mass Immigration.
Topic: Internal Migration.
Topic: Women in the Labour Force.
Atack and Passell, chapter 18.
C. Goldin, "The Work and Wages of Single Women, 1870-1920," Journal of Economic History, (March, 1980), 81-88.
M.A. Jones, American Immigration, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1992), chapters 7& 9.
11. Prosperity? The Jazz Age and the Roaring ‘20s.
Topic: How Robust Was Economic Performance in the 1920s.
Topic: Those Who Were Left Out.
Atack and Passell, chapter 20.
Charles Holt, "Who Benefited from the Prosperity of the Twenties?", Explorations in Economic History, 14, No. 3 (1977), 277-89.
12. The Depression of the 1930s Recovery and ‘The New Deal’.
Topic: The Crash
Topic: Roosevelt’s new Deal
Atack and Passell, chapter 21 & 22.
E. C. Brown, "Fiscal Policy in the 1930s: A Reappraisal", reprinted in Reinterpretation, Fogel, R.W. and Engerman, S., The
Reinterpretation of American History, New York: W.W. Norton and Co., (1971) 480-7.
T. Mayer, "Money and the Great Depression: a Critique of Professor Temin's Thesis", Explorations in Economic History, 15, No.
2 (1977), 127-45.