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113 Master Spring 2017

113 Master Spring 2017

Econ 113 Syllabus and Reading List

http://www.bradford-delong.com/econ-113-american-economic-history.html

Spring 2017

Lecture: MW 5:10-6:25pm 160 Kroeber Brad DeLong [email protected]

Sections: There are four: 101 M 8:00am Dwinelle 242; 102 M 4:00pm Evans 3; 103 Tu 8:00am Dwinelle 228; 104 Tu 9:00am Dwinelle 205; GSIs: Abby Sara Ridley-Kerr [email protected]; Philip Verma [email protected] 

Administration: https://www.icloud.com/pages/0jm3jYVAUMcjP-QVHc4qhNcWQ#2017-01-18_Econ_113_S2017_Administration_.AEH   

 Schedule of Topics, Readings, and Exams

PART 0: Before Class Begins

  • Register your iClicker. Bring your iClicker to the first (and all subsequent) classes.
  • Review: Martha L. Olney: Microeconomics as a Second Language http://amzn.to/2hvDCj8 

 

PART I: INTRODUCTION

W Jan 18: Introduction: Course Intro

F Jan 20: Assignment: Letter to Lecturer

 

PART II: PRE-INDUSTRIAL AND INDUSTRIALIZING AMERICA

M Jan 23: Deep History: The Agrarian Age & the Commercial and Conquest Revolutions

W Jan 25: Conquest and Commerce

M Jan 30: 1600-1783: Settlement and Revolution

  • Lecture Notes: Settlement and Revolution
  • Lecture Slides: 2017-01-30 (key)
    • Atlantic Trade in 1700: iClickers
    • British Colonial Settlement (and Dutch)

T Jan 31: Assignment: Map exercise out

W Feb 1: 1783-1860: Making the Nation

  • Reading: Paul Boyer: American History: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 2: Revolution, Constitution, a new nation; ch. 3: The promise and perils of nationhood | Boyer Reading Note
  • Lecture Notes: Origins of the Revolution: Jeffersonian Roads | 
  • Lecture Slides: 2017-02-01 (key)
    • British North America
    • Big Ideas: iClickers
    • Toward Revolution
    • The Nation Built Before 1600
    • Map Exercise

F Feb 3: Sample midterm out...

M Feb 6: 1450-1900: Slavery and Some of Its Consequences

  • Reading: Paul Boyer: American History: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 4: Slavery and Civil War | Boyer Reading Note
  • Lecture Notes: 2017-02-06
    • The British Industrial Revolution and the Cotton Gin
    • The Cotton Gin and the "Wolf by the Ears"
    • The American System
    • The Slave Power
    • Who Benefitted from American Slavery?
    • "Every Drop of Blood Drawn by the Lash..."

M-T Feb 6-7: Assignment: map exercise due in section

W Feb 8: 1850-1914: Immigration and the Gilded Age

  • Readings: David A. Gerber: American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction | Gerber Reading Note; Reading: Paul Boyer: American History: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 5: Industrialization and its consequences | Boyer Reading Note
  • Lecture Slides: 2017-02-08
    • Backing Up: Hamilton's America
    • The Republican Ascendancy
    • The Gilded Age
    • The "Huddled Masses"
    • One Kind of Freedom

 

PART III: THE RISE AND EXHAUSTION OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

M Feb 13: 1890-1920: The Progressive Era Course Correction--and World War I

 

W Feb 15: Midterm I

  • Sections will not meet the week after the midterm on Wednesday, February 15.

 

W Feb 22: 1920-1933: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Crash

  • Reading: Eric Rauchway: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction

 

M Feb 27: 1929-1950: The New Deal

 

W Mar 1: 1933-1953: The Knot of War and Cold War

 

M Mar 6: 1915-1953: Mass Production and the Welfare State

 

W Mar 8: A Second Reconstruction?

 

M Mar 13: 1945-1970: The Post-World War II Boom

 

W Mar 15: 1965-1990: Social Democracy Exhausted

 

M Mar 20: 1970-2000: The Neoliberal Turn

  • Readings: Dani Rodrik: The Past, Present and Future of Economic Growth http://tinyurl.com/dl20161210c; Paul Boyer: American History: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 9: To the present

 

W Mar 22: Midterm II

 

M Apr 3: 1790-?: Demography and Feminism

 

PART IV: MAKING OUR CRISIS-RIDDEN COUNTRY

W Apr 5: 1970-?: The Fall of Manufacturing and the Rise of Robots

 

M Apr 10: 2000-?: The Second Great Crash and the Longer Depression

 

W Apr 12: 1980-?: Our Second Gilded Age

 

M Apr 17: 2000-?: Our Present Through a Polanyian Lens

 

W Apr 19: 2015-?: Our Future?

 

PART V: CONCLUSION

M Apr 24: Review and Synthesis

W Apr 26: Questions and Answers

M May 1: Sample Final Exam

F May 12: 3-6 PM: FINAL EXAM

 

This File: https://www.icloud.com/pages/08knt3VtO9bpTIKHf6ibWHB7g#2017-01-11_Econ_113_S2017_Syllabus (earlier draft)

 

 

Big Ideas

  1. We are animals that live by narrative—hence by history…
  2. There are three American nationalisms…
  • The City Upon a Hill: “Let it be as it was in New-England…”
  • A place where we can live freely…
  • “But here was Old Kentucky!”
  1. The American project has been astonishingly successful—in Trotsky’s words: “the furnace where the future is being forged…”
  2. But the American project has been much worse than shadowed by plantation slavery and its echoes down the centuries…
  3. One big contributor to the success of the American project has been immigration…
  4. American society has generated a large—in comparative context—but unevenly distributed quantum of liberty…
  5. American society used to deliver an unusually large quantum of opportunity—but not any more…
  6. American society has delivered an unprecedented and unequalled quantum of prosperity
  7. The story of industrialization requires focusing on growth-oriented industrial policy…
  8. The story of industrialization requires focusing on societal well being-oriented industrial policy…
  9. The story of opportunity and prosperity is the story of our two Gilded Ages: their rise, fall, and rise
  10. The apogee of American success is the mid twentieth century era of social democracy
  11. Society has moved from agriculture to industry to post-industrial services, and is now moving on to ?…
  12. Much of what has gone wrong with America can be traced to regional geography—and to the cultures that entrenched themselves in that geography… 

 

Extras:

  • This Is Berkeley

 

About This Course

Economics 113 is an upper division course for undergraduates in which we study the history of the U.S. economy. It's sole prerequisite is Econ 1. Thus economic concepts, when used, are developed from first principles; however, students who have taken Intermediate Macroeconomics and Microeconomics will find the material most accessible. Some knowledge of International Economics is also helpful. The course surveys a great deal of history. Thus, of necessity, it will focus more intensely on some periods and incidents in U.S. history than on others. The emphasis will be on economic events, factors, and explanations. One goal fis to demonstrate the applicability of the study of history to the analysis of present-day economic events. An equally important goal is to demonstrate the applicability of the study of economics to the understanding of history.

Meetings: Class meets three hours a week, section one hour a week:

  • LEC 001: MW 5:00P-6:29P | 160 Kroeber (DeLong)
    • DIS 101: M 8:00A-8:59A | 242 Dwinelle
    • DIS 102: M 4:00P-4:59P | 3 Evans
    • DIS 103: Tu 8:00A-8:59A | 228 Dwinelle
    • DIS 104 Tu 9:00A-9:59A | 205 Dwinelle

Learning Goals for Economics Students.:This course will stress the Economics Department’s first and fourth learning goals (Critical Thinking Skills and Specialized Knowledge and Problem-solving Skills). For details on learning goals see http://emlab.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/ugrad_goals.shtml

In Lieu of Handouts: This syllabus, midterms, and the final are the only materials that will be distributed in class. All other materials will be available exclusively on the Economics 113 course site at 

Announcements: All announcements about the course (changes in schedule, availability of posted material, links to additional readings, deadlines for assignments) will be distributed via bCourses. Set your alerts accordingly.

Office Hours: Lecturer: Brad DeLong's office hours are Tuesdays 10 -11 a.m., 691 Evans Hall, or by appointment. Email Brad DeLong at delong@econ berkeley.edu to make an appointment. Section Leaders: Abigail Sara Ridley-Kerr [email protected]; Philip Verma [email protected]

Sections and Section Leaders:

Admission: By Department policy, you must attend your first section meeting (note: there will be no section meetings on Tu Jan 17; your first section meeting will be either Th Jan 19 or Tu Jan 23) or your space in this course will be given to another student. The instructor and GSIs do not have the power to admit students (or to readmit you if you are dropped). Students seeking admission should consult the following website for instructions: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/enrollmentproc.shtml. Economics Department policies and not your instructor and GSIs determine admission. 

Course Readings: Required readings consist of seven short texts that can be purchased in the standard places, and that will also be on reserve at Moffitt:

plus readings accessible on the web, some of which require your CalNet ID.

Lecture Participation: Purchase and use an iClicker from the student store to respond to questions that will be posed in lecture.

Grades: Your grade will be based on an in-class final exam (30%), two in-class midterms problem (15% each), in-lecture iClicker questions (10%), section-based writing assignments on the readings (15%), section-based calculation assignments (5%), and section and lecture participation (10%). It is expected that the class will work hard enough in the course to make the median grade some form of B+.

Final Exam: The final exam will be administered on Friday, May 12, 2017, 3:00-6:00 p.m.

Special Accommodation: If you require special accommodation due to disability, you should speak with your GSI at the beginning of the semester. You will need to provide documentation from the Disabled Students Program.

BOOKS:

TOOLS:

  • exponential, convergent, and logistic growth
  • supply, demand, and surplus
  • economic rents
  • externalities and growth
  • social planning
  • national income and expenditure
  • interest rates, asset prices, and spending
  • inflation and unemployment

CALCULATIONS:

  • Calculations: Why are we here in a world that looks like this, and not one that looks very different?
  • Calculations: Who benefited most from slavery?
  • Calculations: The 1970s inflation and its cure
  • Calculations: What might our future look like?

 

Weekly teaching meeting: M @ 9 Strada...

WHAT TO DO IN SECTION:

  • Discuss readings
  • Review lectures
  • Do what-if exercises 
  • Present and discuss policy options
  • Prepare for exams

 

Housekeeping: