Lamoreaux, N. The Changing Economic Order: American Economic History Since 1877

Spring, 1995
Prof. N. Lamoreaux

History 184B:  The Changing Economic Order: American Economic 
History Since 1877


Week 1

     Jan. 25--Introduction
     Jan. 27--The American State and Its Role in the Economy

Week 2

     Jan. 30--The Pace and Pattern of Economic Growth and 
Technical Change
     Feb. 01--The Tragedy of the Postbellum South

     Reading:  
Robert Higgs, Competition and Coercion:  Blacks in the American 
Economy, 1865-1914, pp. 37-61, 153-59.b

Joseph D. Reid, Jr., "Sharecropping As An Understandable Market 
Response:  The Post-Bellum South," Journal of Economic History, 33 
(March 1973), pp. 106-30.b

Roger L. Ranson and Richard Sutch, "The Ex-Slave in the Post-
Bellum South:  A Study of the Economic Impact of Racism in a 
Market Environment," Journal of Economic History, 33 (March 1973), 
pp. 131-48.b

Roger L. Ransom and Richard Sutch, "Debt Peonage in the Cotton 
South After the Civil War," Journal of Economic History, 32 (Sept. 
1972), pp. 641-69.b

Gavin Wright, Old South, New South:  Revolutions in the Southern 
Economy Since the Civil War, pp. 81-123.b

Week 3

     Feb. 06--Financial Institutions and Markets
     Feb. 08--Alternative Views of the Rise of Big Business

     Reading:  
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial 
Revolution in American Business, pp. 1-314.a


Week 4

     Feb. 13--The Puzzle of Farm Discontent
     Feb. 15--The Labor Problem

     Reading:
Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment:  A Short History of the 
Agrarian Revolt in America.a

Week 5

     Feb. 20--Holiday, No Class
     Feb. 22--The Crisis of the 1890s

     First paper due Friday, Feb. 24 at 4:00 PM.


Week 6

     Feb. 27--Regulation:  Why and For Whom?
     Mar. 01--The Antitrust Paradox

     Reading:  
Thomas McCraw, Prophets of Regulation:  Charles Francis Adams, 
Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, and Alfred E. Kahn, pp. 1-
152.a

Gabriel Kolko, The Triumph of Conservatism:  A Reinterpretation of 
American History, 1900-1916, pp. 26-56.b

Week 7

     Mar. 06--World War I and Hooverian Associationism
     Mar. 08--The Dual Economy

     Reading:  
Olivier Zunz, Making America Corporate, 1870-1920.a

William Lazonick, Competitive Advantage on the Shop Floor, pp. 
213-251.b

Week 8

     Mar. 13--The Federal Reserve System and the Financial Markets
     Mar. 15--Causes of the Great Depression

     Reading:  
Peter Temin, Lessons from the Great Depression.a

Michael A. Bernstein, "Why the Great Depression Was Great:  Toward 
a New Understanding of the Interwar Economic Crisis in the United 
States," in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980, 
ed.

Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle, pp. 32-54.b

Week 9

     Mar. 20--Hoover and FDR
     Mar. 22--Redistribution and Reform

     Second paper due Friday, March 24 at 4:00 PM.

Spring Vacation

Week 10

     Apr. 03--Fiscal and Monetary Policy and the End of the Great 
Depression
     Apr. 05--The Command Economy of World War II

     Reading:  
Christopher L. Tomlins, The State and the Unions: Labor Relations, 
Law, and the Organized Labor Movement in America, 1880-1960.a

Week 11

     Apr. 10-- Conservative Keynesianism
     Apr. 12--The Great Society and the Viet Nam Debacle

     Reading:
Allen J. Matusow, The Unraveling of America:  A History of 
Liberalism in the 1960s, pp. 3-271.a

McCraw, Prophets of Regulation, pp. 210-309.a

Week 12

     Apr. 17--The Reagan Revolution
     Apr. 19--The Competitiveness Issue

     Reading:  
David C. Mowery and Nathan Rosenberg, Technology and the Pursuit 
of Economic Growth.a

Week 13

     Apr. 24--The Market for Corporate Control
     Apr. 26--Policy Dilemmas for the 1990s

Reading: 
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., "The Competitive Performance of U.S. 
Industrial Enterprises since the Second World War," Business 
History Review, 68 (Spring 1994), pp. 1-72.b

Bronwyn H. Hall, "Corporate Restructuring and Investment Horizons 
in the United States, 1976-1987," Business History Review, 68 
(Spring 1994), pp. 110-43.b

Harvey H. Segal, Corporate Makeover: How American Business is 
Reshaping for the Future, pp. 1-21 and 121-59.b

Michael C. Jensen, "Eclipse of the Public Corporation," Harvard 
Business Review, 67 (Sept.-Oct. 1989), pp. 61-74.b

     Third Paper Due Friday, May 5 at 4:00 PM.

Course Requirements:

     Participation in discussion sections.
     Three synthetic essays (approximately 8-10 pages in length) 
on questions to be given out in advance.  Essays are due on the 
dates noted above.  Grade penalties will be assessed on late 
papers.

Grading:

     In general, each essay will count for 30 percent of the 
course grade and participation in class discussions for the 
remaining 10 percent, but we will adjust grades to reflect 
significant improvement over the course of the semester.
     Students must write all three papers to pass the course.

Offices and hours:

Prof. Lamoreaux
205 Sharpe House
x 2828
Mon 3:00-4:30 PM
Wed 3:00-4:30 PM(or by appointment)
TA offices and hours will be announced in class.

Notes:
a Available at the Brown Bookstore.  Also on reserve at the 
Rockefeller Library.

b In a course packet available at the Brown Bookstore.  Also on 
reserve at the Rockefeller Library.