Smiley, G. Twentieth Century American Economic History

ECON 126: TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY

SYLLABUS AND COURSE ASSIGNMENTS: FALL 1996

INSTRUCTOR: Prof. Gene Smiley.

OFFICE NO: BA 579. Office Phone: 288-5664. Email: smiley@mail.busadm.mu.edu

OFFICE HOURS: 8:30-10:00 am and 5:00-5:45 pm, and by appointment.

REQUIRED PURCHASE TEXT

Gene Smiley, The American Economy in the Twentieth Century (Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Co., 1994).

PURPOSE OF COURSE

Throughout the late eighteenth, the nineteenth, and the first half of the twentieth centuries the United States economy created more wealth at a faster rate than ever before in the history of mankind. During those two hundred plus years an increasingly larger fraction of American citizens escaped poverty until finally wealth could become such an accepted normal circumstance that analysts were inquiring into "the causes of poverty" rather than "The Causes of the Wealth of Nations" as Adam Smith had done. During most of this period the bulk of the citizens of other nations remained mired in poverty; less so in Western European nations and much more so in Asian and African nations.



By the beginning of the twentieth century the United States had the highest per capita incomes on earth. It had been transformed from a nation of small, largely self-sufficient, farmers in the colonial period to an urban-industrial society. In 1800 74 percent of the labor force was engaged in agricultural production, while by 1910 only 31 percent of the labor force was still employed in the agricultural sector. By the beginning of World War I the basic structure of the modern American economy had been established. The frontier had disappeared, the system of cities was in place, and a national transportation and communications network had been created.



In the twentieth century the mature American economy has experienced many problems and changes. Two world wars and restricted wars in Korea and Vietnam have wrought pronounced changes and the development of a "military-industrial" complex as part of a massive military buildup. A severe, but short depression of 1920-21 preceded the devastating Great Depression of 1929-1933, a depression which became worldwide in scope. The painfully slow recovery from the Great Depression occurred as the federal government ushered in fundamental economic and social changes. Though the American economy continued to grow rapidly in the 1945-1960 period, its growth was slowing relative to the rest of the world. In the 1960s and 1970s the slower growth of the American economy allowed the per capita incomes of Japan and several Western European nations to approach (or perhaps exceed) that of the United States. A number of dramatic events occurred in the 1970s including the peacetime imposition of wage and price controls, the Arab oil embargo and Iranian revolution and war with Iraq which led to two dramatic increases in the world price of crude petroleum, accelerating rates of price inflation in the United States, meat shortages in the early 1970s, and, in the early and mid 1980s the most devastating farm depression since the 1930s.

These and other issues will be examined in this course.

Classes in this course will be lecture with frequent class discussion. It is impossible in the course of one semester to lecture on and discuss all of the relevant (or even most important) topics in such a course. The textbook surveys such topics and covers topics and issues relevant to the course. Lectures will concentrate on examining particular topics or issues in (generally) more detail than the textbook. Therefore, not every relevant topic or issue will be discussed in class. Considerable time will be spent on the Great Depression of the 1930s and the recovery which began in 1933 since this is critical period in twentieth century American economic history.



The last four classes of the semester will be devoted to student presentations of their termpapers.



If you are a student with a disability, please feel free to contact me early in the semester for any help or accommodations which you may need.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

There will be one in-class examination during the semester, a final examination at the end of the semester, and a course termpaper. The points and weight in the course grade are given below along with the curve which will be used in the course. The course grade will also be determined by the presentation of the termpaper and student participation in class discussion. Requirements for the presentation of the termpaper are given below. The specific term paper requirements are attached. The in-class and final examinations will be composed of essay questions. The in-class examination will be given on Monday, October 14. The final examination will be on Wednesday, December 11 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

Course Requirement Points Weight in Course Grade

In-Class Examination 60 17.65%

Final Examination 100 29.41

Termpaper Proposal 20 5.88

First Termpaper Submission 80 23.53

Final Termpaper Submission 40 11.76

Class Discussion 20 5.88

Termpaper Presentation 20 5.88

TOTALS 340 100.00%

GRADE PERCENT OF TOTAL POINTS

A 100-90%

AB 90-85

B 85-80

BC 80-75

C 75-65

CD 65-60

D 60-50

F 50-0

The required readings are from Smiley, The American Economy in the Twentieth Century. As mentioned above though all of the chapters in the textbook are assigned, lectures will not duplicate the text nor necessarily follow the sequence of topics in the text. Rather lectures will be organized around selected twentieth century topics or issues.



Read the assigned chapters prior to class so as to be prepared to participate in class discussion. Participation in classroom discussion is worth 20 points or 5.88 percent of the course grade. There will be some survey lectures but other classes will primarily be classroom discussion where it will be necessary to have read the material prior to the class meeting.

CLASS ASSIGNMENTS

1. M 8-26 Course Introduction and Overview of American Economic Development, 1787-1914.

Smiley, Ch. 1.



2. W 8-28 Overview of the First World War and the Interwar American Economy.

Smiley, Ch. 1 (pp. 4-10) and Chs. 2-5.



3. M 9-2 LABOR DAY: NO CLASS



4. W 9-4 Booms and Busts: 1917-1929: Introduction. "Before the Crash" video.

Smiley, Ch. 3 (pp. 36-43) and Ch. 5 (pp. 102-106).



5. M 9-9 Booms and Busts: 1917-1929: Continued with discussion.

Smiley, Ch. 3 (pp. 36-43) and Ch. 5 (pp. 102-106).



6. W 9-11 An Overview of the Depression Decade: 1929-1939.

Smiley, Ch. 2 (pp. 17-23).



7. M 9-16 An Overview of the Depression Decade: "After the Crash" video.

Smiley, Ch. 2 (pp. 17-23).



8. W 9-18 The New Deal

Smiley, Ch. 6 (pp. 125-134).



9. M 9-23 Monetary and Fiscal Policies in the Depression Decade.

Smiley, Ch. 6 (pp. 113-125).



10. W 9-25 Monetary and Fiscal Policies in the Depression Decade.

Smiley, Ch. 6 (pp. 113-125).



11. M 9-30 Explanations of the Great Depression.

Smiley, Ch. 7.



12. W 10-2 Explanations of the Great Depression.

Smiley, Ch. 7.



13. M 10-7 The Second World War:

Was It Necessary to End the Great Depression?

Economic Effects of the War.

Smiley, Ch. 8.



14. W 10-9 An Overview of the Postwar American Economy.

Smiley, Chs. 9-14.



15. M 10-14 Mid-Term Examination



16. W 10-16 An Overview of the Postwar American Economy.

Smiley, Chs. 9-14.



17. M 10-21 Agricultural Crises in the 1970s and 1980s.

Smiley, Ch. 10 (pp. 242-254).



18. W 10-23 The Energy Crises of the 1970s.

Smiley, Ch. 12 (pp. 282-293).



19. M 10-28 Transportation Regulation and Deregulation.

Smiley, Ch. 12 (pp. 294-299).



20. W 10-30 Banking Crises in the 1980s.

Smiley, Ch. 13 (pp. 316-327).



21. M 11-4 The Growth of American Government.

Smiley, Ch. 15 (pp. 356-365).



22. W 11-6 Stabilization Policies.

Smiley, Ch. 15 (pp. 365-374).



23. M 11-11 Social Policies.

Smiley, Ch. 15 (pp. 374-382).



24. W 11-13 Income Distribution in the American Economy.

Smiley, Ch. 16 (pp. 391-413).



25. M 11-18 "The Good Life and Its Discontents."



26. W 11-20 Termpaper Presentations



27. M 11-25 Termpaper Presentations



28. W 11-27 THANKSGIVING BREAK: NO CLASS



29. M 12-2 Termpaper Presentations



30. W 12-4 Termpaper Presentations

TERMPAPER PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS

Toward the middle of the semester, the order of student presentations of termpapers will be given. Students will be allowed to negotiate mutually beneficial changes in that order so long as the instructor is notified of all such changes.



Each student will be given about 15 minutes to present a summary of their termpaper. The presentation should include the title of the paper, an explanation of the topic, why the student was interested in and chose the topic, and a summary of the findings in the paper.



This is to be an oral presentation. Notes may be used, but they cannot be read. No prepared summary may be read. The grade will be based on the presentation style, how well the above points are addressed in the presentation, and how the student handles questions addressed to him/her by the instructor and students at the end of the presentation. If the student desires presentation supplements in the form of handouts or presentation graphics (PowerPoint), or other such supplements may be used. See Prof. Smiley about this before the presentation.



I consider the termpaper presentation to be an important part of the course and attendance at the presentations is not optional. If a student misses any one of the presentations without a valid excuse (i.e., a certified death in the immediate family, illness with a doctor’s written excuse, and so forth) the points for class discussion will be reduced by 5 from whatever amount would otherwise have been awarded.

TERMPAPER REQUIREMENTS

The termpaper is an integral and major part of this course, as indicated by the fact that 41.17 percent of the course grade depends on the grade for the three paper submissions. A suggested length for the termpaper is from 10 to 20 typed double-spaced pages, excluding the title page, footnote pages, and bibliography. The paper grade will depend, among other things, on the thought, effort, and where relevant, originality of the student s effort. Longer papers do not necessarily mean better papers.



1. SUBMISSION DATES:

 

A. Termpaper Topic: Monday, September 30. This is a two to three page paper which presents and explains the topic the student wishes to write about. In this proposal each student should indicate why this topic was of interest and why the student choose to research and write on this topic. (This may well be incorporated into the finished termpaper.) Although a formal outline is not required, the topic paper should clearly state how the student intends to develop the paper. In addition to the two to three pages in the body of the paper, there should be a cover page with the title of the proposed paper, the student s name, the name and number of the course, and the date. At the end of the paper attach a preliminary bibliography listing books, articles, and other sources of information for the paper. Each student should be aware that there are only three weeks between the submission of the termpaper topic paper and the first submission of the completed termpaper. It is essential that much of the research work be undertaken and completed prior to the submission of the termpaper topic paper. The three weeks after submission of the termpaper topic paper will allow each student to make changes and begin writing the termpaper using the research already undertaken.



Though short this should be considered a complete paper. It should use complete sentences and contain no spelling or grammatical errors. Submit two copies of this topic paper. One copy I will retain and the second copy will be returned with comments, suggestions, and the grade for this paper.



If the termpaper proposal is not submitted in class on Monday, September 30, there will be a penalty of 5 points from whatever points the proposal otherwise received. If the proposal is not submitted in class on Wednesday, October 2, there will be a penalty of 10 points from whatever points the proposal otherwise received. If the paper is not submitted in class on Monday, October 7, the grade will be reduced by 15 points from whatever points were otherwise received.



B. First Submission of the Termpaper: Monday, October 21. This submission of the termpaper will be read and graded. It will be returned to each student to allow him/her to correct grammar, spelling, structure, and (where feasible) make content changes before turning in the final submission. Please note the following: The first submission is not a rough draft. It is to be as complete and finished as each of you can make it! It should include a cover page and a bibliography at the end of the paper. Be certain that you number all of the pages in the paper. Any paper submitted without page numbers will have its grade reduced. I use page numbers as references when I make my comments at the end of the paper. As indicated above the grade will depend, among other things, on the thought, effort, and where relevant originality of the student s effort. This first submission of the termpaper will be returned by Monday, November 4, so that each student can make revisions prior to the final submission of the paper. Since there will be only two weeks between the return of the first submission and the final submission, it is essential that each student use a word processing program to write the paper, and this is a requirement of the course. The College of Business Administration maintains student labs with Word for Windows, and WordPerfect for Windows.



If the first submission of the termpaper is not submitted in class on Monday, October 21 then 10 points will be deducted from whatever points it would otherwise have received. If the first submission is not submitted in class on Wednesday, October 23 then 20 points will be deducted from whatever points it would otherwise have received. If the first submission is not submitted in class on Monday, October 28 then 30 points will be deducted from whatever points it would otherwise have received. If the first submission is not submitted in class on Wednesday, October 30 then 40 points will be deducted from whatever points it would otherwise have received. I cannot promise that any first submission which is submitted late will be returned on Monday, November 4..



C. Final Submission of the Termpaper: Monday, November 18. The first submission of the termpaper must be returned with the final submission. This final submission of the termpaper will not be returned to the student. If you want a copy make a copy for yourself prior to submission. At the same time each student must submit a disk containing the termpaper file. Please indicate what word processing program was used to write the paper. (If you used a Macintosh word processing program rather than a DOS or Windows word processing program please so indicate.) The disk will be returned.

Because the termpaper presentations begin on Wednesday, November 20, it is crucial that termpapers be submitted by Monday, November 18. If the final submission of the termpaper is not submitted in class on Monday, November 18, 10 points will be deducted from whatever points otherwise would have been awarded. If the final submission of the termpaper is not submitted in class on Wednesday, November 20, 20 points will be deducted from whatever points otherwise would have been awarded. If the final submission of the termpaper is not submitted in class on Monday, November 25, 30 points will be deducted from whatever points otherwise would have been awarded.



There will be no exceptions to the late penalties for the termpaper topic paper, the first submission, or the final submission. The indicated dates are the last, not the first dates for these submissions. Each student has the entire semester prior to the indicated date to accomplish the designated task. No one should come forward with an excuse such as, "I have been so busy that I just could not get the paper finished on time." Such an excuse is completely and unequivocally unacceptable.



2. FOOTNOTES.



All direct quotes, paraphrased statements, specific data, and information directly attributable to a specific source or sources must be footnoted.

FOOTNOTES: REFERENCE

To save typing time and trouble, all reference footnotes can be handled as follows. In brackets [ ], — these are not parentheses ( ) — and after the quotation, put the author s last name, year (see section on bibliography if author has more than one publication in the same year), and page number(s); e.g., [Keynes, 1936, pp. 20-21]

FOOTNOTES: COMMENT

If you have comment footnotes (elaborating on the text material), then use *, numbers, or letters and place the comment at the bottom of the page. Separate text and footnotes with an unbroken line twenty spaces in length, beginning at the left-hand margin on the first line beneath the text. The first line of the footnote material should be on the second line below this line (third line under the text). Indent the first line of each footnote the same number of spaces as the paragraph indentation in the text (six to eight spaces). Type the footnotes single space, but use double space between individual notes.



E.g., last line of the text.



*This same point is also made by several other authors examined, i.e., [Jones, 1942, p. 138] and [Smith, 1952, p. 221].



If, and only if, you use numbers comment footnotes may be placed at the end of the paper before the bibliography and after any appendices.

QUOTATIONS

In general, quotations should correspond exactly with the originals in wording, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Short direct prose quotations should be incorporated into the text of the paper and enclosed in double quotations marks. But, in general, a prose quotation of two or more sentences which at the same time runs to four or more typewritten lines should be set off from the text in single spacing and indented in its entirety four spaces from the left and right marginal lines, with no quotation marks at the beginning and end.

TAKING NOTES

When taking notes on material you may later want to quote, make sure you get the material exactly as stated and note the complete bibliographic data, i.e.,



For a Book: Name of author(s); name of editor or translator if any; name of series in which the book appears, if any, and volume number in the series; fact of publication consisting of: number of volumes if reference is to a multi-volume work, number of edition if other than the first, place of publication, name of publishing agency, date of publication, volume number, and page number(s).



For an Article: Name of author(s); title of article (in quotes); name of periodical (underlined); volume (number, if any) of periodical; date of volume of issue; page number(s).



3. BIBLIOGRAPHY.



A bibliography listing all books and articles consulted in writing the termpaper must be included at the end of the paper. Each entry in the bibliography must indicate where the book or article was found; e.g., "Marquette University Library," or "Author s personal collection," or "University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library," etc. Bibliography directions can be found in the Department of Economics Termpaper Guidelines attached at the end of these guidelines.



The bibliography should be alphabetical with the surname first at the left margin. If an entry is more than one line, then subsequent lines are indented one-half inch from the margin. Single space the entry, but leave a space between entries. For successive entries of works by the same author, substitute a one-halfinch line ending with a period for the author s name. If the author has more than one publication in one year, then add a, b, c, etc. after the year; e.g., 1969a, 1969b, 1969c, etc. Example:



Bailey, Duncan and Schotta, Charles. [1972] "Private and Social Rates of Return to Education of Academicians." American Economic Review, Vol. LXII, No. 1 (March, 1972), pp. 19-31.



Ferguson, C. E., and Maurice, S. Charles. [1970] Economic Analysis. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1970.



4. SOURCES.



You should make significant use of at least four good sources other than textbooks in preparing your paper. References can be found at the end of relevant chapters and in the footnotes for those chapters in the textbook. Finally, if you are having difficulty finding sources for your chosen topic ask the instructor.



5. CONTENT.



Your grade will be based in a significant way on both substance and style. With respect to substance, your paper should deal with an important topic, should take you well beyond the level of understanding of that topic which could be obtained from the assigned course readings, and should make effective use of good sources. With respect to style, your paper should be well organized, written with clarity, and devoid of errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. And, don t let poor typing (if you choose not to use a word processing program) ruin an otherwise good paper.



6. OLD PAPERS AND DUAL SUBMISSIONS.



Do not submit for credit in this course any paper which has been previously submitted for credit in this or any other course, and do not submit a paper which represents only a minor "facelift" of a paper previously submitted for credit. Do not submit a paper for credit in this course for which you expect to earn credit in a concurrent course, unless this is cleared in advance by both instructors.

7. WRITING AND PRINTING THE PAPER.

As indicated above each student is required to use a word processing program to type and print the paper. Given the short period of time to revise the paper this is essential. Margins should be at least one inch on all four sides, the text should be double spaced, and paragraph indentations should be one-half inch. Be certain that each of you use headings and subheadings to organize your paper and make it easier for the reader to follow your analysis and arguments.



8. MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.



a. Do not forget economic theory!



Economic history is applied economics. The arguments and data in your paper should be firmly grounded in economic theory. For example, if you are analyzing the postwar decline of the American steel industry you must consider the demand and supply for steel. This includes such things as the rise of substitutes, changes in production costs and technology, and the industrial structure of the industry.



b. Avoid unsubstantiated statements in your paper.



For example, a statement such as "Curbs on automobile imports are good for the United States" requires justification. You may draw upon the findings of others, or data which you have collected to reach this conclusion. However, unsubstantiated statements will certainly be penalized.



c. Use an outline.



Before writing, prepare an outline to aid you in getting things in the proper place and sequence. The outline helps to organize your thoughts. Once the outline is in place, you can start filling the in gaps.



d. Avoid mixing of tenses.



You may use the present or the past tense. Often the present tense is preferred. For example, "Temin finds" would be used rather than "Temin found", though sometimes this may make the paper sound awkward. But whichever approach is used make certain you are consistent in your tense use.



e. Avoid causal language in your writing.

This is a mistake that students frequently make. The statement, "It s almost as if critics of these guys don t care about the effects of these policies" is simply too conversational for a research paper. It could be restated in more formal terms to read, "Opponents of this view appear unconcerned with the economic consequences of these policies." Avoid the use of words such as don t, can t, etc., in favor of , do not, cannot, etc.



f. Avoid these common errors.



-misspelt words [sic].

-hyphenating, at the end of a line where there are no syllables (wrong: nominat-ion; right: nomina-tion).

-running paragraphs together.

-uncorrected typographical errors.



g. Always number all of the pages in your paper! Some word processing programs require that you explicitly implement page numbering. I will reduce the grade of any paper which does not have its pages numbered.



h. Critically review the articles you read.



Just because an article appears in print, does not automatically mean that its arguments are correct. Critically evaluate the arguments made, the data used (for example what have they left out of their model), the conclusions they draw, etc. Do not be afraid to disagree, but make certain that you can back up your assertions.



i. Do not use plastic or paper binders.



Submit your papers either stapled or paper clipped. Plastic report holders, the ones with the sliding plastic binders which are always falling off, make it more difficult to grade and comment on papers.



j. Termpaper competition.



The Department of Economics has two awards each year which are given for excellence in writing. The Department of Economics Faculty Award is given for the best economics paper written by a graduating Arts and Sciences Economics major, and another Department of Economics Faculty Award is given for the best economics paper written by a graduating Business Economics major. Although these awards are given to a student in his or her senior year, the papers which are submitted to the competition may have been written at an earlier time in that student s undergraduate career. These termpapers will be considered for this competition.



9. TERMPAPER TOPICS.



Termpapers are to be written on an issue or event or topic of historical or current interest. The paper should present, wherever possible, the twentieth century historical background of the event or issue as a part of the termpaper. The following are previous termpaper titles.



The Monetary Policy of the Great Depression

The Stock Market Crash of October 1987 and the Federal Reserve Bank

Should or Shouldn t They? The ECU

The Strategies of Competition and Production of the Ford Motor Company

Women in Social Security

American Overseas Investment: 1914-1947

The Breakup of the American Telegraph and Telephone Empire

Economic Applications to Address the Problems of the Environment

The Origin of the Welfare State: The Legacy of the New Deal

The Rise of General Motors During the Interwar Period

History and the Effects of the Minimum Wage

The Rise of Foreign Competition in the American Automobile Market

The Crisis in Social Security

The Development of the Credit Card and Its Economic Effects

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: An Overview of Its Creation and Function

Productivity Levels in the U.S.

The Housing Market: 1975 Through 1989

Are Incomes Becoming More Unequal in the 1980 s?

The Airline Industry: From Regulation to Deregulation

The Decline of Labor Unions Since the 1960s

Current Problems of the Social Security System

The Fall of Railroads in the Interwar Period

Reaganomics Examined: Monetarism Revisited and Supply-side Claims

History of Investment Banking in the Twentieth Century

Bailout: The Chrysler Scenario

The Development of the Interstate Highway System

The Development of the Steel Industry During the Interwar Period

American Financing of World War II

Medicare: The History and Problems

The Breakup of the AT&T Monopoly

Is Airline Deregulation the Source of Today s Airline Industry Woes

The Growth of Leveraged Debt in the Decade of the Eighties

Disinflation: The Turn of the Decade

The PATCO strike of 1981

A Historical Analysis of the Evolution of Environmentalism in the United States

Monetary Policy of the Great Depression

The Growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union

Taking Stock on Wall Street: The First 100 Years

The History and Development of the Credit Card

The Communist Movement and the Great Depression

The Gasoline Shortage of 1979

General Motors Creation of Saturn: A Whole in Their Head?

An Economic History of Prohibition

An Economic Evaluation of 28 Years of Medicare: The Past, Present, and Future

The Historical Development of U.S. Nuclear Power (1945-1990): The Rise and Fall of an Official Technology

The Housing Market: 1975-1989

Of Blue Wolf and White Sky

The FDIC—An Overview of Its Creation and Function

South Africa and the United States: An Economy at Stake

History of Futures Markets in the United States

When the Stock Market Was a Game: Did the Bulls of the Bull Market Cause the Crash?

Joint Operating Agreements and Monopolies

Social Security: The Full Picture

Institution of the Minimum Wage and Its Economic Impact

The RJR/Nabisco Takeover

U.S.—Mexican Trade Relations and NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement: Is It a Deal or a Dump?

The European Currency Unit: Is It Beneficial?

The European Monetary System

European Monetary Union

 

General References for Twentieth Century American Economic History

 

General American Economic History Textbooks

• Lance E. Davis, Richard A. Easterlin, William N. Parker et al., American Economic Growth: An Economist's History of the United States (New York: Harper and Row, 1972).
• Peter Passell and Jeremy Attack, A New View of American History, 2nd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994).
• Richard Vedder, The American Economy in Historical Perspective (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1976).
• Barry W. Poulson, Economic History of the United States (New York: Macmillan, 1981).
• Gerald Gunderson, A New Economic History of America (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976).
• Stanley Lebergott, The Americans: An Economic Record (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984).
• Gary Walton and Hugh Rockoff, History of the American Economy, 6th ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1990).
• Robert Puth, American Economic History, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Dryden, 1988).
• Jonathan Hughes and Louis Cain, American Economic History, 4th ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1994).
• W. Elliott Brownlee, Dynamics of Ascent: A History of the American Economy, 2nd ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979).
• Tom Kemp, The Climax of Capitalism: The U.S. Economy in the Twentieth Century (New York: Longman, 1990).
• Peter Fearon, War, Prosperity & Depression: The U.S. Economy, 1917-45 (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1987).
• Sidney Ratner, James H. Soltow, and Richard Sylla, The Evolution of the American Economy: Growth, Welfare, and Decision Making, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1993).
• Harold G. Vatter and John F. Walker, eds., History of the U.S. Economy Since World War II (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996).

 

Suggested References on Specific Topics and Time Periods

 

INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC HISTORY

• Several of the optional textbooks have good introductory chapters on economic history, specifically Gunderson, Vedder, Poulson, Walton- Rockoff, Hughes-Cain, and Davis- Easterlin-Parker.
• Donald McCloskey, "Does the Past Have Useful Economics?" Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 14 (June 1976), pp. 434-461.
• Douglass C. North, "The Place of Economic History in the Discipline of Economics," Economic Inquiry, Vol. 14 (December 1976), pp. 461-465.
• Douglass C. North, "Structure and Performance: The Task of Economic History," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 16 (September 1978 ), pp. 963-978.

 

AN OVERVIEW OF AMERICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1914

• Stuart Bruchey, Growth of the Modern American Economy (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1975).
• Douglass C. North, Terry L. Anderson, and Peter J. Hill, Growth & Welfare in the American Past: A New Economic History, third edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1983).
• Edwin J. Perkins and Gary M. Walton, A Prosperous People: The Growth of the American Economy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, Inc., 1985).

 

WORLD WAR I

• Hughes-Cain present a number of suggested readings at the end of chapter 23.
• Gunderson (1976, chapter 16, pp. 460-464).
• Lebergott (1984, chapter 31).
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 21).
• Fearon (1987, ch. 1).
• Kemp (1990, ch 1).
• Herman E. Krooss, American Economic Development: The Progress of a Business Civilization, third edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974), chapter 16.

 

THE 1920-1921 DEPRESSION

• John Pilgrim, "The Upper Turning Point of 1920: A Reappraisal," Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 11 (Spring 1974), pp. 271-298.
• Elmus Wicker, "A Reconsideration of Federal Reserve Policy During the 1920-21 Depression," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 26 (June 1966), pp. 223-238.
• Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press for the NBER, 1963), chapter 5, especially pp. 231-239.

 

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

• Charles Kindleberger, The World in Depression, 1929-1939 (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1973).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 22).
• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, ch. 14).
• Fearon (1987, ch.7).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 2).
• Barry Eichengreen, ed., The Gold Standard in Theory and History (New York: Methuen, Inc., 1985), Part III, pp. 167-226.

 

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

• Lebergott (1984, ch. 33, pp. 438-440 and ch. 35, pp. 456- 458).
• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, ch. 11).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 23).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 14).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 2).
• Fearon (1987, chs. 2, 5, and 11).
• John T. Schlebecker, Whereby We Thrive: A History of American Farming, 1607-1972 (Ames, IA: The Iowa State University Press, 1975), chs. 18-24.

 

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

• Lebergott (1984, chs. 33 and 35).
• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, ch. 12).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 24).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 14).
• Kemp (ch. 2).
• Fearon (1987, chs. 3, 5, and 12).

 

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, chs. 10 and 13).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 25).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 13).

 

THE GREAT STOCK MARKET BOOM AND CRASH OF THE 1920S

• Lebergott (1984, ch. 33, pp. 440-443 and ch. 34).
• Gunderson (1976, ch. 16, pp. 471-475).
• John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash, 1929 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1954).
• Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Wits, The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1979).
• Charles Kindleberger, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1978).
• Robert Sobel, The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1968).
• George Soule, Prosperity Decade: From War to Depression: 1917-1929, Vol. VIII of The Economic History of the United States (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1947), chs. XIII and XIV.
• Jude Wanniski, The Way the World Works: How Economies Fail, and Succeed (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1978), ch. 7.

 

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

• Lebergott (1984, ch. 34).
• Poulson (1981, pp. 616-626),.
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 23).
• Gunderson (1976, ch. 16, pp. 475-489).
• Passell-Attack (1994, chs. 21-22).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 12).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 3).
• Fearon (1987, chs. 5-9).
• Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Publish Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1949).
• Karl Brunner, ed., The Great Depression Revisited (Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishing, 1981).
• Lester V. Chandler, America's Greatest Depression, 1929-1941 (New York: Harper and Row, 1970).
• Joseph S. Davis, The World Between the Wars: 1919-1939: An Economist's View (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1975).
• Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton: Princeton University Press for the NBER, 1963).
• Robert A. Gordon, Economic Instability and Growth: The American Record (New York: Harper and Row, 1974).
• Gottfried Haberler, The World Economy, Money, and the Great Depression, 1919-1939, Foreign Affairs Study 30 (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1976).
• Charles P. Kindleberger, The World in Depression, 1929-1939 (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1973).
• Murray N. Rothbard, America's Great Depression (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1963).
• Christian Saint-Etienne, The Great Depression, 1929-1938: Lessons for the 1980s (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1984).
• Peter Temin, Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1976).
• Peter Temin, Lessons From the Great Depression (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989).
• Barry Eichengreen, Elusive Stability: Essays in the History of International Finance, 1919-1934 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
• Barry Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).

 

FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD

• Lebergott (1984, ch. 35, pp. 458-461).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 12, pp. 373-382).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 27, pp. 601-613 and 616-626).
• Lee-Passell (1979, ch. 16, pp. 372-389).
• Gunderson (1976, ch. 16, pp. 475-496).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 3).
• Fearon (1990, chs. 4, 6, and 13).
• Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1949).
• E. Cary Brown, "Fiscal Policy in the Thirties: A Reappraisal," American Economic Review, Vol. 46 (December 1956), pp. 857-879.
• Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (Princeton: Princeton University Press for the NBER, 1963).
• Larry Peppers, "Full-Employment Surplus Analysis and Structural Change: The 1930s," Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 10 (Winter 1973), pp. 197-210.
• Thomas Renaghan, "A New Look at Fiscal Policy in the 1930s,": Research in Economic History, Vol. 11 (1988), pp. 171-183.
• Gene Smiley, "Some Austrian Perspectives on Keynesian Fiscal Policy and the Recovery in the Thirties," Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 1 (1987), pp. 145-179.
• Herbert Stein, The Fiscal Revolution in America (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), chs. 1-7.
• Peter Temin, Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1976).
• Peter Temin, Lessons From the Great Depression (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989).
• Elmus Wicker, Federal Reserve Monetary Policy, 1917-1933 (New York: Random House, 1966).
• Anthony S. Campagna, U.S. National Economic Policy, 1917-1985 (New York: Praeger, 1987).
• Robert A Degen, The American Monetary System: A Concise Survey of Its Evolution Since 1896 (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1987).

 

THE NEW DEAL ERA

• Gunderson (1976, ch. 16, pp. 492-496).
• Lebergott (19 84, ch. 35).
• Lee-Passell (1979, ch. 16, pp. 389-392).
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 24).
• Poulson (1981, pp. 406-411, 417, 612, and 625).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 3).
• Fearon (1987, chs. 10-15).
• Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914- 1946 (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1949).
• Lester V. Chandler, America's Greatest Depression, 1929-1941 (New York: Harper and Row, 1970).
• Paul Conkin, The New Deal, second edition (Arlington Heights, IL: AHM Publishing Co., 1975).
• Joseph S. Davis, The World Between the Wars: 1919- 1939: An Economist's View (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).
• Ellis Hawley, The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly, 1933-1939 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965).
• William E.Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963).
• Gerald D. Nash, The Great Depression and World War II: Organizing America, 1933-1945 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979).
• Colin Gordon, New Deals: Business, Labor, and Politics in America, 1920-1935 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
• Don C. Reading, "New Deal Activity and the States, 1933 to 1939," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 33 (December 1973), pp. 792-810.
• Gary M. Walton, ed., Regulatory Change in an Atmosphere of Crisis: Current Implications of the Roosevelt Years (New York: Academic Press, 1979).
• Michael M. Weinstein, Recovery and Redistribution Under the NIRA (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1980).
• Gavin Wright, "The Political Economy of New Deal Spending: An Econometric Analysis," Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 56 (February 1974), pp. 30- 38.

 

WORLD WAR II

• Lebergott (1984, ch. 36).
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 25).
• Kemp (1990, ch 4).
• Fearon (1987, ch. 16).
• Herman E. Krooss, American Economic Development: The Progress of a Business Civilization, third edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall, Inc., 1974), ch. 16.
• Benjamin M. Anderson, Economics and the Public Welfare: A Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1949).
• Paul Evans, "The Effects of General Price Controls in the United States During World War II," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 90 (October 1982), pp. 129-135.
• John Kenneth Galbraith, A Theory of Price Control (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952).
• Alan S. Milward, War, Economy, and Society, 1939-1945 (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1979).
• Gerald D. Nash, The Great Depression and World War II: Organizing America, 1933-1945 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979).
• Hugh Rockoff, Drastic Measures: A History of Wage & Price Controls in the United States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).
• Harold G. Vatter, The U.S. Economy in World War II, Columbia Studies in Business, Government, and Society (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985).

 

POSTWAR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, ch. 11).
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 29).
• Lebergott (1984, ch. 37, pp. 481-483).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 23).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 7).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 14).
• Willard W. Cochran and Mary E. Ryan, American Farm Policy, 1948-1973 (Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1976).
• D. Gale Johnson, World Agriculture in Disarray (New York: Franklin Watts, 1973).
• Phillip Raup, "Corporate Farming in the United States," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 33 (March 1973), pp. 274-290.
• John T. Schlebecker, Whereby We Thrive: A History of American Farming, 1607-1972 (Ames, IA: The Iowa State University Press, 1975), chs. 25-28.
• Daniel B. Suits, "Agriculture," chapter 1 in Walter Adams, ed., The Structure of American Industry, fifth edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977).

 

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 27).
• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, ch. 12).
• Kemp (1990, ch. 7-8).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 24).
• Walter Adams, ed., The Structure of American Industry, fifth edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977).
• Martin Feldstein, ed., The American Economy in Transition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press for the NBER, 1980).
• Robert Sobel, The Age of Giant Corporations: A Microeconomic History of American Business, 1914-1970 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc., 1972).

 

POSTWAR TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATIONS, COMMERCIAL, AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENTS

• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, chs. 10 and 13).
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, ch. 29).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 22).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 13).
• Thomas C. Cochran, 200 Years of American Business (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1977).
• John Brooks, Telephone: The First Hundred Years (New York: 1976).
• Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982).
• Stewart L. Long, "Television Network Development: The Early Years," Business and Economic History, second series, Vol. 6 (1977), pp. 69-83.
• Peter Samson, "The Department Store, Its Past and Its Future: A Review Article," Business History Review, Vol. 55 (Spring 1981), pp. 26-34.
• Benjamin Klebaner, Commercial Banking in the United States: A History (Hinsdale, IL: The Dryden Press, 1974).
• Vincent P. Carosso, Investment Banking in America: A History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970).

 

POSTWAR INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND FINANCE

• Davis-Easterlin-Parker (1972, ch. 14).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 22).
• Kemp (1990, chs. 5, 8, and 9).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 13).

 

GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND MONETARY AND FISCAL POLICIES IN THE POSTWAR PERIOD

• Davis-Easterlin- Parker (1972, ch. 17).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 27).
• Walton-Rockoff (1990, chs. 26 and 28).
• Kemp (1990, chs. 5-6 and 8-9).
• Vedder (1976, ch. 15).
• Edwin J. Perkins and Gary M. Walton, A Prosperous People: The Growth of the American Economy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985), ch. 20.
• Douglass C. North, Terry L. Anderson, and Peter J. Hill, Growth & Welfare in the American Past: A New Economic History, third edition (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983), ch. XV.
• Roger LeRoy Miller, Gary M. Walton, and Robert L. Sexton, Economic Issues and the American Past (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), ch. 10.
• Martin Feldstein, ed., The American Economy in Transition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press for the NBER, 1980).
• Robert Higgs, "Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Two Hypotheses on the Ratchet Phenomenon," Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 22 (January 1985), pp. 1-28.
• Robert Higgs, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of Government (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
• Barry N. Siegel, ed., Money in Crisis: The Federal Reserve, the Economy, and Monetary Reform (Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Co. for the Pacific Institute for Public Policy Research 1984).
• Herbert Stein, The Fiscal Revolution in America (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969).
• Anthony S. Campagna, U.S. National Economic Policy, 1917-1985 (New York: Praeger, 1987).
• Robert A Degen, The American Monetary System: A Concise Survey of Its Evolution Since 1896 (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1987).
• Harold G. Vatter, "Perspectives on the Forty-Sixth Anniversary of the U.S. Mixed Economy," Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 16 (July 1979), pp. 297-330.
• Charles Brown, Curtis Gilroy and Andrew Kohen, "The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Employment and Unemployment," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XX (June 1982), pp. 487-528.
• Lawrence H. Thompson, "The Social Security Reform Debate," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol XXI (December 1983), pp. 1425-1467.
• Dermot Gately, "A Ten- Year Retrospective: OPEC and the World Oil Market," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXII (September 1984), pp. 1100-1114.
• Albert Rees, "An Essay on Youth Joblessness," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol XXIV (June 1986), pp. 613-628.
• R. D. Norton, "Industrial Policy and American Renewal," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXIV (March 1986), pp. 1-40.
• Richard B. Freeman, "Unionism Comes to the Public Sector," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXIV (March 1986), pp. 41-86.
• Eric A. Hanushek, "The Economics of Schooling," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXIV (September 1986), pp. 1141-1177.
• Michael J. Greenwood and John M. McDowell, "The Factor Market Consequence of U.S. Immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXIV (December 1986), pp. 1738-1772.

 

INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND CURRENT DISCONTENTMENT

• Lebergott (1984, ch. 33, pp. 431-432; ch. 39, pp. 496-501, and ch. 40, pp. 507-511).
• Lee-Passell (1979, ch. 15).
• Poulson (1981, ch. 28).
• Roger LeRoy Miller, Gary M. Walton, and Robert L. Sexton, Economic Issues and the American Past (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), ch. 12.
• Michael A. Bernstein and David E. Adler, eds., Understanding American Economic Decline (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
• Frank Levy, Dollars and Dreams: The Changing American Income Distribution (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988).
• Robert A. Samuelson, The Good Life and Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement (New York: Times Books, 1995).
• Susan Lee, Hands Off: Why the Government is a Menace to Economic Health (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996).
• Wallace C. Peterson, Silent Depression: Twenty-five Years of Wage Squeeze and Middle-Class Decline (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994).