Economics
1740
Spring 2006
BUC
105
Monday-Wednesday
11:50 AM to 1:10 PM
Peter Philips
Instructor
BuC 2
office phone: 585-6465
home phone: 466-3159
e-mail: philips@economics.utah.edu
http://www.econ.utah.edu/faculty.html
See PHILIPS under http address above for slide show of
first two weeks of lecture.
office hours: (by appointment and 11:00-11:50 Mondays
and Wednesdays)
I will not have
office hours the week prior to exams. This is to
discourage last minute studying and to encourage early effort. If you cram late, you will do so without my
assistance. Study, and we study
together. Cram, and you cram alone.
I am also usually in my office during the weekdays and sometimes on the weekend. You are welcome to drop by any time. Call ahead if possible so I can be sure to be there when you come by. You are welcome to call me at home before 9 p.m. on week-days and after 9 a.m. and before 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. You may also E-Mail me messages or leave a message on my office answering machine. If you would like an “office visit” on the phone, feel free to call me at any time. If I am busy I will let you know. Otherwise, we can chat.
Economics 1740 is a
survey course in American economic history. There are no prerequisites for this
course. This reading list will introduce
the subject matter of the course, the reading assignments, the testing
procedures and the various arrangements for organizing the class. Please read this syllabus carefully. It contains answers for most of the questions
that arise in a course such as this.
Brief Biography of
the Instructor.
The instructor,
Peter Philips, received his Ph.D. from
However, Professor
Philips’ primary area of research is in labor economics. Those publications are not listed here.
Professor Philips received the Superior
Teacher Award from the
Subject Matter:
This is a fifteen-week general
survey course of American economic history.
It begins with the colonial economy on the Atlantic coast in the 1700s
and traces the development and geographical expansion of industrial capitalism
across what becomes the
Required Texts:
The required text for this course
are
1.
Robert L. Heilbroner and Aaron Singer, The Economic
Transformation of
2.
Terkel, Studs, Hard Times, An Oral History of the
Great Depression,
3.
Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies, W.W. Norton, 1999.
(Used versions of
any of these books are fine.)
Credit-Non Credit: Many
students taking this course may do so credit-no credit. I encourage students to
consider this option. The purpose of
credit-no credit option is to encourage students to "take chances" in
academic disciplines with which they are not familiar. If you have any
questions regarding credit-no credit procedures, please ask me as early as
possible during the quarter.
Learning Handicaps:
The testing instruments in this class are essays with a multiple choice option. Lectures are fast paced and the reading may
be difficult for some. If you have any learning handicap such as dyslexia or
other medical condition, if you are just now learning English or if for any other
personal reason study in this class may prove unusually difficult,
please consult with me after class or in my office early on in the
quarter. I have some experience in
advising students with study handicaps and in customizing exams for specific
problems. So I may be of help to
you. If English is not your native
language, you may find it helpful to tape the lectures. I do not write on the board as much as some
instructors, and taping lectures may help you develop better lecture notes.
Key Dates:
Classes
begin
Monday, January 8
Last
day to drop (delete) classes
Wednesday,
January 17
Last day to register, elect CR/NC, or audit classes
Monday,
January 22
Last day to withdraw from classes
Monday: January 29—Book Report
on Guns Germs and Steel Due
Monday: February 26—Midterm
Exam
Friday,
March 2
Last day to reverse CR/NC option
March 17 to March 25—Spring Break (yea!)
Monday:
April 2—Oral History of the Great Depression Term Paper Due
Friday,
April 20
Classes
end
Wednesday, April 25
Thursday,
April 26
Final Exam for this class: Wed., May 2, 2007 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Examinations:
There is a midterm
and final exam, both essay exams, in class plus two papers.
Both the two
midterms and the final will be essay questions but if you wish, I can provide a
multiple choice questions option for part or all of the midterm or final. The
midterm, final and each paper are equally weighted, 25% each.
The exams are
closed-book.
If you miss a
midterm for whatever reason, there are no make-ups. Your final grade will simply be the grade you
receive on the two papers and the final exam weighted equally. You must take
the final exam to pass the course. If
you cannot take the exam at the scheduled time, you must make prior
arrangements with the instructor to take the exam at another time.
Incompletes will be
granted on rare occasions of illness or emergency. These will be judged on a case-by case basis
by the instructor.
Papers:
The first paper is
a book review of a section (or part) of Diamon’s Guns, Germs and Steel. This review should be done with one other
person in the course. In this review you
must 1) summarize the arguments of the section (or “part”) of the book—you choose
the section, 2) your partner chooses a different section of the book. You and your partner jointly write a
comparison of the arguments and evidence in the two sections you have chosen. How do they relate to each other? How do they
support each other and the overall argument of the book? 3) Finally, you write the third part of your
essay alone. You critically evaluate the
section your have chosen to review.
The second paper is
an oral history of three people in the Great Depression. Look at Terkel’s book for examples.
Reading
comprehension is crucial to doing well in this course. Here are three tricks to improve your reading
comprehension. First, underline or
highlight your reading. Avoid
highlighting more than 25% of what you read.
Aim for about 15%. Make sure your
underlines focus on the topic sentences of paragraphs and the introductory
paragraphs of various sections within a chapter. Second, read actively, asking questions of
the reading as you go. Among other questions to have in mind, ask: how does this fit into what has gone before?; Is the argument I am currently reading
compatible with or contradictory to other readings in the course or the
lectures?; Can I summarize what the
author is trying to say?; Can I
critically evaluate the argument? Third,
review your previous reading each time before beginning new reading. Always attempt to see how new readings fit
into and emerge from earlier reading.
Read a little each night. Avoid
cramming. For more on this see the appendix on study habits and exam taking
skills.
Also, a hint on
preparing for the test. Underline as you
read. Review your underlines of previous
reading prior to beginning the new reading.
Read a little bit each night rather than large amounts in one
sitting. Read actively asking yourself
questions of the reading. Ask: "Can
I summarize the overall argument to this point?" "Can I summarize the author's most
recent line of argument?" (In the
case of the photocopied readings) "Can I relate, compare and contrast this
author's work to the text book and/or to other authors?" "How does what this author says fit into
or contradict other material which I have read?" Active reading, periodic review, careful
underlining, staying up with the material, constant and attentive class
involvement are the keys to doing well in this course.
Weeks One through
Three:
Heilbroner, all of
Part One (Chapters 1 through 3: Jan 8 to Jan 24).
Diamond, Guns Germs
and Steel--All
This section
discusses a) what is economic history, b) what was the influence of European
economic history on the development of this country, c) it describes the
colonial economy and discusses the transition from the colonial economy to
early
Monday: January 29—Book Report on Guns Germs and Steel Due
Weeks Four and Five
(Jan. 29 to Feb. 7):
Heilbroner,
Chapters 4 through 6
This section will focus on the rise
of manufacturing covered in Heilbroner but will concentrate on the specific
issues associated with the movement towards factory production. The lectures
will include a discussion of the colonial economy, the transformation from the
colonial merchant to the specialized firm to the beginnings of the modern
corporation. The lectures will also
discuss a dispute over the rise of the factory system and modern
manufacturing. The lecture will summarize
a thesis by Stephen Marglin. Marglin has
a controversial, "radical" thesis:
factories came about to enhance the ability of bosses to supervise and
sweat workers. According to Marglin,
factories were not initially technological advances; they were institutional
devices designed to enhance the power of employers. David Landes directly opposes Marglin's
thesis (incidentally, they are both professors in the same economics department
at
The rise of the factory
system brought about, eventually, a whole new social division of labor. Not only was the distinction between employer
and worker more sharply drawn but also the distinctions among workers was more
finely delimited. In particular, there
emerged a detailed division of labor within production with each worker
along the assembly line doing a task which was marginally different from those
done up and down the line. With these
distinctions there emerged a hierarchy within the factory and lines of progression
from worse to better jobs. In this
lecture, we ask the question what accounts for the emergence of job ladders and
the allocation of groups such as men and women across good and bad jobs. The student should have a good understanding
of the concepts social division of labor, detailed division of labor, general
skills and firm specific skills. The student should also understand the two
competing explanation for internal hierarchy within the firm. Were job ladders primarily learning ladders
designed to teach workers the skills of work once the craft apprenticeship
systems were eliminated or were job ladders a method of divide and control
strategies designed to offset the potential worker unity caused by the
destruction of exclusive craft unions?
Week Seven and
Eight (Feb 12 through Feb. 21)
Heilbroner Chapters
7 and 8
Three lectures will
be presented—one on child labor, one on slavery and one on the rise of the
modern corporation.
February 26 (Monday) Midterm
Exam
Weeks Nine and Ten (Feb
28 through March 7):
Heilbroner Chapters
9 through 11
Of Saints and
Sinners
The Gold Rush in
Week Eleven and
Twelve: (March 12 to March 28) :
In this section I will discuss the
rise of unions in the
This completes our discussion of
Nineteenth Century labor markets and firm structure (actually up through World
War I). There are five basic areas you
should understand. First, questions concerning the rise of the product market and how
that affect peoples lives as consumers, producers and members of families and
communities. How did the rise of the
product market relate to the rise of labor markets? Also you should be able to relate the rise of
the product market with a second
issue: the rise of the modern corporation.
How did firms evolve from general, low volume colonial firms to
specialized, higher volume firms in the first half of the nineteenth century to
the horizontally integrated and vertically integrated firms of the latter half
of the last century. What was the role
of market? of technology? of labor in this transformation? How did the evolution of the firm affect the
evolution of production and work? Third, you should be able to relate the
rise of labor markets and the modern corporation to the rise of the union
movement and the movement for public education. How did economic changes lead
to and/or respond to legal changes in regulating unions and requiring
education? Fourth, also you
should have a firm grasp of the background issues associated with the European
invasion and settlement of the
Monday:
April 2—Oral History of the Great Depression Term Paper Due
Week Thirteen
through Week Fifteen (April 2 through April 18)
The Great
Depression and World War II
Heilbroner,
chapters 12 and 13.
Studs Terkel, Hard
Times (All)
In these chapters in Heilbroner we
continue our consideration of depressions within the American economy. Here we consider the Great Depression of the
1930's and the government's response: The New Deal. We will also go back to the Nineteenth
Century and review the business cycle of that era. We will find out that the Great Depression
was really the third or fourth great depression this country has experienced
and we will consider parallels with the economic stagnation of today.
Week 16 (April 25
to 25):
Heilbroner, chapter
14 through 16.
This lecture covers the post-war
period which will be divided into two parts, a period of prosperity from the
World War Two to the Vietnam war and a period of slow-growth and stagnation
from the first oil shock to the recent boom.
Final Exam for this class: Wednesday,
May 2, 2007 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
These are sample multiple choice questions like
those that will be on the examinations if you choose a multiple choice option.
1. Heilbroner argues that history must be
written from a perspective, highlighting one theme or another from our
"total" history. Why does
Heilbroner take this position?
a. Because Heilbroner believes that all
historians have biases and that no one can write a truly "objective"
history.
b. Because Heilbroner believes that the ruling
class of every society will force its vision of society on all the classes of
that society. So a history of slavery
written in the South during the time of slavery will reflect the perspective of
Southern slave owners no matter who is the individual writing the history.
c. Because "total" history involves too
much material. An all encompassing
history can never be written. The
historian must be selective and focus on selected themes to the exclusion of
other issues. Some may focus on political
history while others focus on the history of jazz. The choice of a theme is a decisive
determinant of what we find in "history".
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
2. Which of the following is a key aspect of the
mercantilist system?
a. It focused on production as the key source of
profits
b. It used market competition as its main
regulating force.
c. Through its emphasis on mercantile trade it
increased the number of trading partners any one country or colony would have.
d. all of the above are key elements of the
mercantile system
e. none of the above
3. Immediately after the Civil War between 1865
and 1870
a. the economy went into a deep post-war
depression
b. the economy expanded rapidly increasing GNP by
almost 50 percent
c. continuous processing technology and the
assembly line developed in arms manufacturing during the war now dominated all
Northern manufacturing
d. the CIO was founded
e. none of the above
4. Which of the following is not a factor
helping explain the technical backwardness of western hemisphere societies
compared to eastern hemisphere societies around 1400?
a. The western hemisphere’s north-south
orientation compared to the eastern hemisphere’s east-west orientation
b. The limited numbers of large species available
for draft animals in the western hemisphere relative to the eastern hemisphere
c. The relative immunity of peoples in the
eastern hemisphere to infectious diseases compared to peoples in the western
hemisphere
d. The greater impact mass extinctions had on the
large animals of the western hemisphere compared to the eastern hemisphere
e. The earlier development of agriculture in the
eastern hemisphere
5. Which of the following is among the advantages
of the detailed division of labor?
a. It facilitates financial development.
b. It facilitates mechanization.
c. It facilitates the growth of the secondary
sector.
d. It facilitates the growth of markets.
e. It facilitates the growth of money.
6. The colonial firm was general in its
functions. Which of the following was
not a function of the colonial firm?
a. finance
b. production
c. transportation
d. generalization
e. sales
7. Both the detailed division of labor and the
specialized firm
a. were outcomes of the Civil War
b. needed growing markets
c. occurred first in the
d. developed initially through the innovative
activities of Cornelius Vanderbuilt
e. all of the above
8. The
market or capitalist system which first developed in new England and the
a. because it was a system of exchange based on
equivalence among anonymous participants and consequently could embrace a
geographically wider social division of labor and increasing numbers of
relative strangers.
b. because it was a system which developed
specialized firms capable of transacting a higher volume business than
previous, generalized firms while it used the market to coordinate that higher
volume of business across a wider area and among a larger number of people.
c. because it was a system which developed
factories which could coordinate a more detailed division of labor than was
possible using the market mechanism, and that detailed division of labor
allowed more people to qualify for manufacturing labor while it facilitated
mechanization.
d. because it became a system where power was
based on profits and profits came from the economic growth of the firm which
consequently embedded into the system a drive to grow.
e. all of the above.
9. Agriculture
a. first began in
b. prior to 1400 in the western hemisphere
entailed a limited number of food crops
c. prior to 1400 in the western hemisphere
entailed relatively few domesticated animals
d. in the fertile crescent involved the early
domestication of sheep, goats and cattle
e. in
10. The Chinese in
a.
the first
wage laborers to be employed by manufacturers in
b.
excluded
from all mining occupations in the
c.
located primarily in Central
d.
located in the same mines that whites worked but were excluded from the
best jobs such as blasting
e. worked along side whites miners in the same
jobs because competition forced an integration of the mining labor force