COURSE OUTLINE AND READING LIST
FOR
AMERICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY
SPRING 2000
Prof. Hugh Rockoff
NJ Hall 102
Phone: 732‑7857
WWW.fas-econ.rutgers.edu/home/rockoff
Hours: wednesdays 3:30-5; mondays 9-11 or by
appointment
This course surveys the economic history of the
United States from the Revolution to the present day. The central purpose is to
show how economic analysis illuminates past trends and events; and how, at the
same time, an understanding of economic history illuminates current economic
problems.
Textbook
All students are expected to read the relevant
chapters of Gary Walton and Hugh Rockoff, History of the American Economy
(eighth edition) before class in order to gain an understanding of the basic
historical and economic issues.
Papers and Examinations
Twenty percent of your grade will be based on the
midterm exam and 40 percent on your final exam. These will be essay exams,
which ask you to summarize and critically evaluate material discussed in the
assigned readings and in class. The exams will cover broad and important
themes. But please realize that in a economic history course, unlike some other
economics courses, you will be expected to learn some facts -- you will have to
memorize them.
Approximately 30 percent of your grade will be
based on a research paper of approximately 25 pages due on friday, April 28.
During the first couple of weeks of the semester
it is your job to stop by my office to get acquainted and to begin discussing
your paper topic. A three-page abstract of the paper is due on Friday February
11. It is expected that the research paper will contribute to knowledge in
economic history by examining new evidence, or reexamining existing evidence.
Finding a good topic for your paper may be one of the hardest parts of the
course. Some suggestions on how to find a good topic are in the appendix at the
end of the syllabus.
The remaining 10 percent of your grade will be
based on class participation.
|
American Economic History The Semester at a Glance |
||
|
Week |
Date |
Topic |
|
1 |
1/19-21 |
Scope and Method |
|
2 |
1/26-28 |
Railroads |
|
3 |
2/2-4 |
Slavery |
|
4 |
2/9-11 |
Antebellum Banking |
|
5 |
2/16-18 |
Postbellum South (Abstract for Paper
is due -- statement of the idea, key sources) |
|
6 |
2/23-25 |
Postbellum Capital Markets |
|
7 |
3/1-3 |
Gold Standard |
|
8 |
3/8 |
Rise of the Modern Corporation |
|
“ |
3/10 |
Midterm Exam |
|
|
3/15-17 |
(Spring Break) |
|
9 |
3/22-24 |
World War I and the 1920s |
|
10 |
3/29-31 |
The Great Depression |
|
11 |
4/5-7 |
World War II |
|
12 |
4/19-21 |
Modern Labor Markets |
|
13 |
4/26 |
Growth of the Federal Government |
|
“ |
4/28 |
Convergence Among Regions and Nations (Paper
due) |
|
15 |
|
Final Exam by arrangement |
Readings
The readings for each week are divided into basic
and supplementary readings. The latter are intended for students who wish to
pursue a topic in greater depth, especially for students whose research paper
will be related to that topic.
Each unit will consist of a lecture and a class
discussion centered on the starred reading.
Copies of the basic journal articles are on
reserve in the Department library. Copies of the basic books are on reserve
in Alexander library.
1.
January 19,21
Scope and Methodology of Economic History
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 1.
*McCloskey, Donald N. (1976) "Does the Past
Have Useful Economics." Journal of Economic Literature 14: 434-61.
Rockoff, Hugh. "History and Economics."
in Engaging the Past, Eric H. Monkkonen, ed., (Durham: Duke University
Press, 1994), 48-76.
Supplementary
Readings
David, Paul A. "Clio and the Economics of
QWERTY." American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 75
(1985): 332-337.
Fogel, Robert W. "The Specification Problem
in Economic History." Journal of Economic History (September 1967):
283-308.
North, Douglass C. "Structure and
Performance: The Task of Economic History." Journal of Economic Literature 16 (1978): 963-78.
Redlich, Fritz. "'New' and Traditional
Approaches to Economic History and Their Interdependence." Journal of
Economic History 25 (December, 1965): 480-95.
2.
January 26-28
Railroads and the Growth of the American Economy
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of the American
Economy, chapters 9, 16.
*Fogel, Robert W., Railroads and American
Economic Growth (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964), pp.
1-146.
Fogel, Robert W. "Notes on the Social Saving
Controversy." Journal Of Economic History 39 (March 1979): 1-54.
Lebergott, Stanley. "United States Transport
Advance and Externalities." Journal of Economic History 26
(December 1966): 437-61.
Supplementary Readings
Coatsworth, John H. "Indispensable Railroads
in a Backward Economy: The Case of Mexico." Journal of Economic Hisotry 39
(December 1979): 939-60.
David, Paul. "Transport Innovations and
Economic Growth: Professor Fogel On and Off the Rails." In Paul David
(ed.), Technical Choice, Innovation, and Economic Growth (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1975), chapter 6.
Engerman, Stanley L. "Some Issues Relating
to Railroad Subsidies and the Evaluation of Land Grants." Journal of
Economic History 32 (June 1972): 443-63.
Fishlow, Albert. American Railroads and the
Transformation of the Antebellum Economy. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1965.
W.W. Rostow. The Stages of Economic Growth: A
Non-Communist Manifesto. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.
3.
February 2-4
Slavery
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 13.
Fogel, Robert W. and Stanley L. Engerman. Time
on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. Two Volumes. Boston:
Little, Brown and Company, 1974, passim.
*Fogel, Robert W. and Stanley L. Engerman.
"Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum
South." American Economic Review 67 (1977): 275-296.
Steckel, Richard H. "A Peculiar Population:
The Nutrition, Health, and Mortality of American Slaves from Childhood to
Maturity." Journal of Economic History 46 (1986): 721-42.
Supplementary Readings
Conrad, Alfred H. and John R. Meyer (1958)
"The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South" Journal of
Political Economy 66: 95-130. Reprinted in their book The Economics of
Slavery and Other Studies in Econometric History, Chicago: Aldine, 1964:
43-92.
Fogel, Robert W. Without Consent or Contract:
The Rise and Fall of American Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton Company, 1989.
A number of papers attacked the evidence offered
by Fogel and Engerman to show that slave agriculture was more efficient than
free agriculture. These include the following.
David, Paul A. and Peter Temin. (1979)
"Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the
Antebellum South: A Comment." American Economic Review 69: 213-218.
Field, Elizabeth B. (1988) "The Relative
Efficiency of Slavery Revisited: A Translog Production Function
Approach." American Economic
Review 78: 543-549.
Schaefer, Donald and Mark D. Schmitz. "The
Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: A Comment." American Economic
Review 69 (1979): 208-212.
Wright, Gavin "The Efficiency of Slavery:
Another Interpretation." American Economic Review 69 (1979):
219-26.
Fogel, Robert W. and Stanley L. Engerman.
"Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum
South: Reply." American
Economic Review 70 (1980): 672-690.
4.
February 9-11
Antebellum Banking
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 12.
Temin, Peter. The Jacksonian
Economy, New York: Norton, 1969.
*Rockoff, Hugh. "The Free Banking Era: A Re‑Examination,"
Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, May 1974, pp. 141‑173.
Rolnick, Arthur J., and Warren E. Weber.
"New Evidence on the Free Banking Era." American Economic Review
73 (1983): 1080-1091.
Supplementary Readings
Engerman, Stanley. "A Note on the Economic
Consequences of the Second Bank of the United States," Journal of
Political Economy 78 (July/August 1970): 725B28.
Hammond, Bray. Banks and Politics in America
from the Revolution to the Civil War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1957, passim.
Kahn, James A. "Another Look at Free Banking
in the United States." American Economic Review 75 (1985): 881-885.
Macesich, George. "Sources of Monetary
Disturbances in the U.S., 1834-1845." The Journal of Economic History
20 (1960): 407-34.
Redlich, Fritz. The Molding of American
Banking: Men and Ideas. New York: Hafner, 1947 and 1951, 2 vols.
Rockoff, Hugh."New Evidence on Free Banking
in the United States," American Economic Review 76 (September
1986): 886‑889.
Rolnick, Arthur J. and Warren E. Weber. "The
Causes of Free Bank Failures: A Detailed Examination of the Evidence." Journal
of Monetary Economics 14 (1984): 267‑91.
5.
February 16-18
The Postbellum South
(Abstracts
of papers due)
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 14.
*Engerman, Stanley. "The Economic Impact of
the Civil War." In The Reinterpretation of American Economic History,
Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Ransom, Roger. L., and Richard Sutch. One Kind
of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation. New York: Cambridge
Univ. Press, 1977, passim.
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South:
Revolutions in the Southern Economy. New York: Basic Books, 1986, passim.
Supplementary Readings
Alston, Lee, and Robert Higgs. "Contractual
Mix in Southern Agriculture since the Civil War: Facts, Hypotheses, and
Tests." Journal of Economic History 42 (1982): 327-53.
DeCanio, Stephen. Agriculture in the
Postbellum South. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1974.
Fishback, Price V. "Debt Peonage in
Postbellum Georgia," Explorations in Economic History 26 (1989):
219-36.
Goldin, Claudia, and Frank Lewis. "The
Economic Cost of the American Civil War." Journal of Economic History
35 (1975): 294B326.
Higgs, Robert. Competition and Coercion:
Blacks in the American Economy, 1865B1914. New York:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977.
Margo, Robert A. "Accumulation of Property
by Southern Blacks Before World War One: Comment and Further Evidence." American
Economic Review 74 (September 1984): 768-76.
Margo, Robert A. Race and Schooling in the
South, 1880-1950. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Reid, Joseph. "Sharecropping as an
Understandable Market Response: The Postbellum South." Journal of
Economic History 33 (1973): 106B30.
Ransom, Roger L. Conflict and Compromise: The
Political Economy of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War. New
York and London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989.
Temin, Peter. "The Post-Bellum Recovery of
the South and the Cost of the Civil War." Journal of Economic History
36 (1976): 898B907.
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South:
Revolutions in the Southern Economy. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
6.
February 23-25; 7. March 1-3
The Integration of Capital Markets after the Civil War
[We will discuss both the regional integration of
capital markets in the United States, and the international integration of
capital markets through the gold standard.]
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter
19.
*Davis, Lance. "The Investment Market,
1870-1914: Evolution of a National Market." Journal of Economic History
25 (September 1965): 355-99.
Bordo, Michael D. (1981) "The Classical Gold
Standard: Some Lessons for Today" Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Review.
63: 1-17.
Friedman, Milton and Anna Jacobson Schwartz. A
Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, for the NBER, 1963, chapter 3, especially, 104-118.
James, John A. "The Development of a
National Money Market, 1893B1911." Journal
of Economic History 33 (1976): 878B97.
Supplementary Readings
Bodenhorn, Howard and Hugh Rockoff "Regional
Interest Rates in Antebellum America." In Claudia Goldin and Hugh Rockoff,
eds., Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History: A
Volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1992.
Bordo, Michael. "The Traditional
Approach" in Michael Bordo and Anna J. Schwartz, eds., A Retrospective
on the Classical Gold Standard 1821B1931 (NBER, University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp.
1-120.
Davis, Lance E. "Capital Immobilities and
Finance Capitalism: A Study of Economic Evolution in the United States." Explorations
in Entrepreneurial History 1, no. 1 (Fall 1963): 88B105.
James, John A. Money and Capital Markets in
Postbellum America. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1978.
Sylla, Richard. "Federal Policy, Banking
Market Structure, and Capital Mobilization in the United States, 1863B1913." Journal of Economic History 29
(1969): 657B86.
Zecher, J. Richard, and McCloskey, D.N. "The
Success of Purchasing Power Parity: Historical Evidence and Its Implications
for Macroeconomics," in Michael Bordo and Anna J. Schwartz, eds., A
Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard 1821B1931
(NBER, University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 121B150.
8. March 8
The Rise of the Modern Corporation
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 17.
*Chandler, Alfred D., Jr., The Visible Hand:
The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1977), passim, and chapter 8.
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. The Great merger Movement
in American Business, 1895-1904. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1985, passim.
Supplementary Readings
Allen, Robert C. "The Peculiar Productivity
History of American Blast Furnaces, 1840-1913." Journal of Economic
History 37 (1977): 605-33.
Atack, Jeremy. "Industrial Structure and the
Emergence of the Modern Industrial Corporation." Explorations in
Economic History 22 (1985): 29-52.
Hughes, Jonathan. The Governmental Habit:
Economic Controls from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Basic
Books, 1977.
8.
March 10
MIDTERM EXAM
The midterm exam will consist of a series of
essay questions that will ask you to synthesize and critically evaluate the
most important trends and ideas discussed in the readings and class lectures.
*
March 15-17
Spring Break
9.
March 22-24
World War I and the Roaring Twenties
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of the American Economy,
chapters 21-22.
*White, Eugene N. "When the Ticker Ran Late:
The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929." In The Stock Market Crash in
Historical Perspective, ed., Eugene Nelson White. Homewood, IL.: Dow
Jones-Irwin, 1989.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash of
1929, reissued with a new introduction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961, passim.
Rockoff, Hugh. Drastic Measures: A History of
Wage and Price Controls in the United States. New York: Cambridge
University Press, chapter 3.
Supplementary Readings
Clark, John Maurice. "The Basis of War-Time
Collectivism." American Economic Review 7 (1917): 772-790.
Clark, John Maurice.. The Costs of the War to
the American People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931.
Libecap,
Gary D. "The Political Allocation of Mineral Rights: A Reevaluation of
Teapot Dome," Journal of Economic History 14
(1984): 381-93.
10.
March 29-31
The Great Depression
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of the American
Economy, chapter 23, 24.
*Friedman, Milton and Anna J. Schwartz. A
Monetary History of the United States. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1965, pp. 299-545, especially 299-332.
Temin, Peter. Did Monetary Forces Cause the
Great Depression? New York: W.W. Norton, 1976.
Bernanke, Benjamin. "Non Monetary Effects of
the Financial Crisis in the Propagation of the Great Depression." American
Economic Review 73 (1983): 257-276.
Supplementary Readings
Bordo, Michael D. (1989) "The Contribution
of A Monetary History of the United States, 1867 - 1960 to monetary
history" in Michael D. Bordo (ed.) Money, History, and International
Finance: Essays in Honor of Anna J. Schwartz. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press: 15-70.
Romer, Christina. "The Great Crash and the
Onset of the Great Depression." Quarterly Journal of Economics CV
(1990): 597-624.
Schwartz, Anna J. "Understanding
1929-33." In Karl Brunner (ed.) The Great Depression Revisited. The
Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981.
Temin, Peter. Lessons from the Great Depression
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
White, Eugene N. "A Reinterpretation of the
Banking Crisis of 1930." Journal of Economic History 44 (1984):
119-138.
11.
April 5-7
World War II
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 25.
*Friedman, Milton. "Price, Income and
Monetary Changes in Three Wartime Periods." American Economic Review
(May 1952): 612-625.
Evans, Paul. "The Effects of General Price
Controls in the United States during World War II." Journal of Political
Economy 90 (1982): 944-966.
Rockoff, Hugh. Drastic Measures: A History of
Wage and Price Controls in the United States. New York: Cambridge
University Press, chapters 4 and 5.
Supplementary Readings
Galbraith, John Kenneth. A Theory of Price Control.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1952, passim.
Gordon, Robert J. "45 Billion of U.S.
Private Investment has been Mislaid." American Economic Review 59 (June
1969): 221-38.
Higgs, Robert. "Private Profit, Public Risk:
Institutional Antecedents of the Modern Military Procurement System in the
Rearmament Program 1940-1941." In Geofrey Mills and Hugh Rockoff, eds., The
Sinews of War: Essays on the Economic History of World War II Ames: Iowa
State University Press, 1993..
Rockoff, Hugh. "The Response of the Giant
Corporations to Wage and Price Controls in World War II." Journal of
Economic History 41 (March 1981): 123-8.
12.
April 19-21
The Evolution of the Modern Labor Market
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 30.
*Donohue, John J., III, and James Heckman.
"Continuous Versus Episodic Change: The Impact of Civil Rights Policy on
the Economic Status of Blacks." Journal of Economic Literature
(December, 1991): 1603-43.
Goldin, Claudia. "The Political Economy of
Immigration Restriction in the United States, 1890-1921." In Claudia
Goldin and Gary D. Libecap (eds.) The Regulated Economy (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press for the NBER), 1994, 223-258.
Goldin, Claudia D. "The Role of World War II
in the Rise of Women's Employment." American Economic Review 81
(1991): 741-56.
Supplementary Readings
Goldin, Claudia. (1988) "Maximum Hours
Legislation and Female Employment: A Reassessment" Journal of Political
Economy 97: 535-560.
Goldin, Claudia. (1990) Understanding the
Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women. New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Goldin, Claudia, and Robert A. Margo. (1992)
"The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in the United States at
Mid-Century" Quarterly Journal of Economics 107: 1-35.
Wright, Gavin. "Cheap Labor and Southern
Textiles." Quarterly Journal of Economics 96 (1981) : 605-630.
13.1
April 26
The Growth of the Federal Government
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 26.
*Higgs, Robert. Crisis and Leviathan: Critical
Issues in the Emergence of the Mixed Economy. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1986, passim, especially 35-76.
Hughes, Jonathan, R.T. The Governmental Habit.
New York: Basic Books, 1977.
Supplementary Readings
Borcherding, Thomas E. "The Sources of
Growth of Public Expenditures in the United States, 1902-1970." In Budgets
and Bureaucrats: The Sources of Government Growth, ed. Thomas E.
Borcherding. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1977.
Edelstein, Michael. "What Price Cold War?
Military Spending and Private Investment in the US, 1946-1979." Cambridge
Journal of Economics 14 (1990): 421-37.
Hughes, Jonathan, R.T. The Governmental Habit.
New York: Basic Books, 1977.
McCraw, Thomas K. Prophets of Regulation.
Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Meltzer, Allan H., and Scott F. Richard. "Why Government Grows (and Grows) in a
Democracy." Public Interest
52 (Summer 1978): 111-118.
Meltzer, Allan H., and Scott F. Richard. "A
Rational Theory of the Size of Government." Journal of Political
Economy 89 (October 1981): 914-27.
Meltzer, Allan H., and Scott F. Richard. "Tests of a Rational Theory of the Size
of Government." Public Choice 41 (1983): 403-418.
Niskanen, William A. Bureaucracy and
Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1971.
Peltzman, Sam. "The Growth of
Government." Journal of Law and Economics 23 (Oct. 1980): 220-285.
13.2
April 28
Convergence among Regions and Nations
Basic Readings
Walton and Rockoff, History of
the American Economy, chapter 31.
*Abramovitz, Moses. "Catching Up, Forging
Ahead, and Falling Behind." Journal of Economic History XLVI (June
1986): 385-406.
Supplementary Readings
Baulmol, William J. "Productivity, Growth, Convergence,
and Welfare: What do the Long-run Data Show." 78 American Economic
Review (December 1986): 1072-1085.
De Long, J. Bradford. "Productivity Growth,
Convergence, and Welfare: Comment." 76 American Economic Review
(December 1988): 1138-1159.
Easterlin, Richard A. "Does Economic Growth
Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence." In Paul David and Melvin
Reder, eds. Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz. New York: Academic
Press, 1974.
Gershenkron, Alexander. Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective New York:
Praeger, 1962.
Lebergo