Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

...Why are we, today, so rich compared to our ancestors? Why are some countries so rich and others so poor? Why were a handful of European countries able to conquer much of the rest of the globe? Those are just a few of the questions we will explore this year, together.

You see, Economics is not just about money, or exchange, or the distribution of resources. It is about human action, and interaction. It is a science of society. And History — the record of human experience — provides us with the raw data. It is the source of all of the models, all of the theories of how society works. And it is their test. History is the evidence — it is the rock upon which an economic theory survives, or is broken.

But humans are complicated: we are diverse and unpredictable. The challenge for a social science is thus far greater than that for the physical, natural sciences. We will thus be asking big questions, but we will not always find answers. This is something I hope you will get used to at university, where we hope to push at the boundaries of human knowledge, not just to learn what is already known.

I have also tried to make the scope of this course as broad as possible — I have tried to be ambitious! We will not only be looking at the West, and we will not only be looking at the recent past. The course will take us as far back as the Neolithic — to over ten thousand years BC — all the way to the present. And the breadth of subjects will be vast: from looking at the causes of the Great Depression in the 1930s, to investigating the institutions that sustained long-distance trade in medieval North Africa. We will look at sweeping theories of Economic History covering entire continents; and we will look at studies of very specific instances that still shed valuable light on the biggest and broadest of questions.

At the same time, we will use economic principles to understand history. This will not be history as you know it — one king or queen after another, one politician after the next. Instead, we will explore the fundamental forces that give rise to empires, and destroy nations; the institutions that give rise to trade, and the fundamental sources of human prosperity.

I can’t wait to get started...

Anton Howes: The World Economy and its History: "Introduces the main themes of Economic History, from the Neolithic to the mid-twentieth century. It is about asking the big questions... http://antonhowes.weebly.com/uploads/2/1/0/8/21082490/world_economic_history_2017_18_public_draft.pdf

...We will explore why some countries have become so rich, and ask why others remain poor. Among other things, we will uncover the origins of the modern state, and the institutions that make trade possible. And we will explore the evolution of the global economy – periods of globalisation, economic collapse, and rapid industrialisation....

PART I – Poverty and Riches: The Great Fact: Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton University Press, 2007), Chapter 1; Stephen Broadberry et al., British Economic Growth, 1270-1870 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), Prologue.... The Malthusian Trap – why were our ancestors so poor?: Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (Princeton University Press, 2007), Chapters 2, 3, 4; 5 Dietrich Vollrath, “Who are you calling Malthusian?” (blogpost): https://growthecon.com/blog/Malthus/.... The Earliest Divergence: Why Eurasia?: Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Norton, 1997). Chapters 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; Robert C. Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Chapter 7....

The Mortality & Fertility Transitions: Ronald Lee, “The Demographic Transition: Three Centuries of Fundamental Change,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 17, no. 4 (December 2003): 167–90.... The Industrial Revolution: Sources of Growth: Gregory Clark, “The Industrial Revolution,” in Handbook of Economic Growth, ed. Philippe Aghion and Steven Durlauf, vol. 2 (Elsevier, 2014), 217–62; Jack A. Goldstone, “Efflorescences and Economic Growth in World History: Rethinking the ‘Rise of the West’ and the Industrial Revolution,” Journal of World History 13, no. 2 (October 1, 2002): 323–89.... The Industrial Revolution: Sources of Innovation: Robert C. Allen, “Why the Industrial Revolution Was British: Commerce, Induced Invention, and the Scientific Revolution,” The Economic History Review 64, no. 2 (May 1, 2011): 357–84; Joel Mokyr, “The Intellectual Origins of Modern Economic Growth,” The Journal of Economic History 65, no. 2 (June 1, 2005): 285–351.... The Great Divergence: East Asia: Joel Mokyr, A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton University Press, 2016), Chapters 16, 17; Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making World Economy (Princeton University Press, 2000), Introduction and Chapter 1.... The Great Divergence: The Middle East: Jared Rubin, Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2017), Chapters 5, 8; Timur Kuran, “The Islamic Commercial Crisis: Institutional Roots of Economic Underdevelopment in the Middle East,” The Journal of Economic History 63, no. 2 (2003): 414–46.

PART II – Institutions & Trade: Deep Roots of Development: Kenneth L. Sokoloff and Stanley L. Engerman, “History Lessons: Institutions, Factors Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 14, no. 3 (July 1, 2000): 217–32; Understanding Institutions: Douglass C. North, “Institutions,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, no. 1 (March 1991): 97–112; Douglas Allen, Institutional Revolution: Measurement and the Economic Emergence of the Modern World (University of Chicago Press, 2011) Chapters 1, 2, 3; Sheilagh Ogilvie, “‘Whatever Is, Is Right’? Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe,” The Economic History Review 60, no. 4 (2007): 649–684.... Trade, and How to Maintain It: Avner Greif, “Reputation and Coalitions in Medieval Trade: Evidence on the Maghribi Traders,” The Journal of Economic History 49, no. 4 (1989): 857–82, and “History Lessons: The Birth of Impersonal Exchange: The Community Responsibility System and Impartial Justice,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, no. 2 (June 2006): 221–36.... The Rise of the Modern State: Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth, “Gifts of Mars: Warfare and Europe’s Early Rise to Riches,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 4 (November 2013): 165–86; Philip T. Hoffman, “Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World?,” Working Paper, (2012), http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Workshops-Seminars/Economic-History/hoffman-120409.pdf; Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D.990-1990 (Cambridge, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 1993), Chapters 3, 4....

The Rise of Democracy: Douglass C. North and Barry R. Weingast, “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutional Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England,” The Journal of Economic History 49, no. 4 (December 1, 1989): 803–32; Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, “Why Did the West Extend the Franchise? Democracy, Inequality, and Growth in Historical Perspective,” +The Quarterly Journal of Economics_ 115, no. 4 (November 1, 2000): 1167–99; Inequality within Countries: Walter Scheidel, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), Introduction & Chapters 1, 2, 3....

Part III – The Modern Global Economy: Globalisation 1850-1914: Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009), Chapter 7; Kevin H. O′Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson, Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy, New Ed edition (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001), Chapters 1, 2, 7.... The Great Divergence: De-Industrialisation of the Periphery?: Robert C. Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Chapters 4, 5, 8; Alice H. Amsden, The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies, New Ed edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Chapters 2, 3....

Protectionism vs. Free Trade: Douglas A. Irwin, “Tariffs and Growth in Late Nineteenth Century America,” World Economy 24, no. 1 (January 1, 2001): 15–30; Laura Panza and Jeffrey G. Williamson, “Did Muhammad Ali Foster Industrialization in Early Nineteenth-Century Egypt?” The Economic History Review 68, no. 1 (February 1, 2015): 79–100.... The Gold Standard: Barry Eichengreen, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System, Second Edition, Second edition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).... De-Globalisation and the Great Depression: Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression 1919-1939 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992), Chapter 1; Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009), Chapter 8.... Post-War Re-Globalisation and Catch-up Growth: Robert C. Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Chapter 9; Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009), Chapter 9; Peter Temin, “The Golden Age of European Growth Reconsidered,” European Review of Economic History 6, no. 1 (2002): 3–22.