Course Schedule & Readings

The course meets four times per week for 20 weeks. Readings are due on the first class meeting of the week shown. Political economists are assigned when their ideas are most directly illuminated by the historical events under study.

Key

P Primary source H Secondary / historiographic A Peer-reviewed article

Week	Topic	Readings & Assignments
1	What Is a Financial Crisis? The Dutch Golden Age	H Kindleberger & Aliber, Manias, Panics, and Crashes, excerpts Discussion: establishing a taxonomy of financial crises
2	Tulipmania (1634–37)	P Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions (1841, excerpts) — Tulipomania A Garber, “Tulipmania,” JEP
3	The Mississippi Scheme and the South Sea Bubble (1719–20)	P Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions (1841, excerpts) — Mississippi Scheme & South Sea Bubble P Defoe, Daniel. The Anatomy of Exchange-Alley (1719, excerpts) A Harris, Ron. “The Bubble Act: Its Passage and Its Effects.” Journal of Economic History 54.3 (1994): 610–627. Document Analysis Paper #1 Due \| Research Paper Proposal Due
4	Adam Smith and the Logic of Markets	P Smith, Adam. Wealth of Nations (1776, excerpts) H Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers, excerpts Discussion: does Smith's invisible hand explain or preclude financial crisis?
5	Say's Law: Can Markets Self-Correct?	P Say, Jean-Baptiste. A Treatise on Political Economy (1803, excerpts) — “Of the Demand or Market for Products” H Kindleberger & Aliber, Manias, Panics, and Crashes, excerpts Discussion: if supply creates its own demand, what causes a depression?
6	Railroads, Reconstruction, and the Panic of 1873	P Marx, Karl. Capital, Vol. I (1867, excerpts) — commodity form, M-C-M′ circuit P Congressional testimony on the collapse of Jay Cooke & Co. H Foner, Eric. Reconstruction, excerpts A Mixon, Scott. “The Crisis of 1873: Perspectives from Multiple Asset Classes.” Journal of Economic History 68.3 (2008): 722–757. Note: Marx assigned here to illuminate railroad speculation as capital accumulation.
7	The Gilded Age: Conspicuous Wealth and the Silver Debate	P Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899, excerpts) — conspicuous consumption P Bryan, William Jennings. “Cross of Gold” Speech (1896) H Goodwyn, Lawrence. Democratic Promise, Introduction A Rockoff, Hugh. “Some Evidence on the Real Price of Gold.” A Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard. NBER/U Chicago, 1984 (course packet).
8	Panics, the Lender of Last Resort, and the Birth of the Fed	P Bagehot, Walter. Lombard Street (1873, excerpts) — the lender-of-last-resort doctrine P Pujo Committee Report (1913, excerpts, course packet) H Meltzer, Allan. A History of the Federal Reserve, Vol. I, excerpts A Calomiris, Charles W. & Gary Gorton. “The Origins of Banking Panics.” Financial Markets and Financial Crises. U of Chicago, 1991 (course packet). Annotated Bibliography Due
9	The 1920s Boom and the Great Crash of 1929	P New York Times, Oct. 24–29, 1929 — front pages (course packet) H Galbraith, The Great Crash 1929, excerpts A White, Eugene N. “The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929 Revisited.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 4.2 (1990): 67–83.
10	Causes of the Great Depression: The Historiographic Debate	H Friedman & Schwartz, A Monetary History of the U.S., excerpts H Eichengreen, Golden Fetters, excerpts A Bernanke, Ben S. “Nonmonetary Effects of the Financial Crisis in the Propagation of the Great Depression.” American Economic Review 73.3 (1983): 257–276. Structured debate: monetary vs. structural explanations for the Depression Midterm Examination
11	The New Deal: Keynes, Hayek, and the Battle Over Recovery	P Roosevelt, FDR. First Inaugural Address (1933); Fireside Chat on Banking (March 12, 1933) P Keynes, General Theory (1936, excerpts); Hayek, Prices and Production (1931, excerpts) A Skidelsky, Robert. “The Relevance of Keynes.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 35.1 (2011): 1–13. Note: Keynes and Hayek assigned here as direct responses to the Depression they lived through. Document Analysis Paper #2 Due
12	Designing the Post-War Order: Bretton Woods and Polanyi	P Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation (1944, excerpts) — the self-regulating market and its discontents P Keynes, Proposals for an International Clearing Union (excerpts); White, Proposal for an International Stabilization Fund (excerpts) H Steil, Benn. The Battle of Bretton Woods, excerpts Note: Polanyi's argument that unregulated markets destroy social fabric appears here as the intellectual context for Bretton Woods institution-building.
13	Bretton Woods Simulation	Active participation in the multi-nation Bretton Woods simulation. Nations: USA, UK, France, West Germany, India, Argentina, USSR. Students manage monetary policy and trade across the postwar recovery (1946–1958). Simulation Reflection Paper assigned.
14	The Long Boom, Stagflation, and the Collapse of Bretton Woods	P Nixon, Richard. Address to the Nation on Economic Policy (August 15, 1971) H Eichengreen, Barry. Globalizing Capital, excerpts A Obstfeld, Maurice, Jay C. Shambaugh & Alan M. Taylor. “The Trilemma in History.” Review of Economics and Statistics 87.3 (2005): 423–438. Simulation Reflection Paper Due
15	Monetarism, Volcker, and the S&L Crisis	P Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905, excerpts) P Volcker, Paul. Statement before the Joint Economic Committee (1981) H Meltzer, Allan. A History of the Federal Reserve, Vol. II, excerpts A Curry, Timothy & Lynn Shibut. “The Cost of the Savings and Loan Crisis.” FDIC Banking Review 13.2 (2000): 26–35. Note: Weber assigned alongside Volcker — both invoke moral discipline as the antidote to inflationary excess.
16	Junk Bonds, Black Monday, and the 1980s Boom	P Brady Commission Report on the Market Break (1988) — executive summary A Jensen, Michael C. “Eclipse of the Public Corporation.” Harvard Business Review 67.5 (1989): 61–74. A Roll, Richard. “The International Crash of October 1987.” Financial Analysts Journal 44.5 (1988): 19–35.
17	The Asian Crisis, LTCM, and the Dot-Com Bust	P Greenspan, Alan. “Irrational Exuberance” Speech (1996) H Shiller, Robert. Irrational Exuberance, excerpts A Radelet, Steven & Jeffrey Sachs. “The East Asian Financial Crisis.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1 (1998): 1–74. Document Analysis Paper #3 Due \| Research Paper Draft Due
18	The Housing Bubble and the Crash of 2008	P Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report (2011), excerpts H Lewis, Michael. The Big Short, excerpts A Brunnermeier, Markus K. “Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007–2008.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 23.1 (2009): 77–100. Oral presentations begin
19	After the Crash: Minsky, Dodd-Frank, and the Politics of Recovery	P Minsky, Hyman. Stabilizing an Unstable Economy (1986, excerpts) — financial instability hypothesis H Blinder, Alan. After the Music Stopped, excerpts A Funke, Manuel, Moritz Schularick & Christoph Trebesch. “Going to Extremes: Politics after Financial Crises.” European Economic Review 88 (2016): 227–260. Note: Minsky assigned here because the 2008 crisis produced his rediscovery — read him as a retrospective diagnosis. Oral presentations continue
19	Patterns Across Crises: What Do We Actually Learn?	H Reinhart & Rogoff, This Time Is Different, excerpts — conclusions H Kindleberger & Aliber, Manias, Panics, and Crashes, excerpts — comparative patterns A Laeven, Luc & Fabian Valencia. “Systemic Banking Crises Database: An Update.” IMF Working Paper WP/12/163 (2012) — summary. Socratic Seminar: what patterns hold? What lessons actually stick?
20	Course Synthesis and Final Examination	Cumulative review across all 20 weeks. Research Papers Due Socratic Seminar: “What is the single most important lesson of economic history?” Final Examination — document analysis (30%), comparative essay (40%), short identifications (30%)

Supplementary & recommended readings

Economic theory & historiography

Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money. Penguin, 2008.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Affluent Society. Houghton Mifflin, 1958.
Ahamed, Liaquat. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World. Penguin, 2009.
Shiller, Robert. Narrative Economics. Princeton UP, 2019.
Wapshott, Nicholas. Keynes/Hayek. Norton, 2011.

Full citation list — journal articles assigned in the schedule

Bernanke, Ben S. “Nonmonetary Effects of the Financial Crisis in the Propagation of the Great Depression.” American Economic Review 73.3 (1983): 257–276.
Bordo, Michael D. “Financial Crises, Banking Crises, Stock Market Crashes and the Business Cycle.” Financial History Review 21.1 (2014): 1–27.
Brunnermeier, Markus K. “Bubbles.” Journal of Economic Perspectives excerpts (course packet).
Brunnermeier, Markus K. “Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007–2008.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 23.1 (2009): 77–100.
Calomiris, Charles W. & Gary Gorton. “The Origins of Banking Panics.” Financial Markets and Financial Crises. U of Chicago Press, 1991: 109–173.
Curry, Timothy & Lynn Shibut. “The Cost of the Savings and Loan Crisis.” FDIC Banking Review 13.2 (2000): 26–35.
De Long, J. Bradford & Barry Eichengreen. “The Marshall Plan: History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Programme.” European Economic Integration. MIT Press, 1993.
DeLong, J. Bradford & Andrei Shleifer. “The Stock Market Bubble of 1929.” Journal of Economic History 51.3 (1991): 675–700.
Eichengreen, Barry & Jeffrey Sachs. “Exchange Rates and Economic Recovery in the 1930s.” Journal of Economic History 45.4 (1985): 925–946.
Fishback, Price V., William C. Horrace & Shawn Kantor. “The Impact of New Deal Expenditures on Mobility During the Great Depression.” Explorations in Economic History 43.2 (2006): 179–222.
Frehen, Rik, William Goetzmann & K. Geert Rouwenhorst. “New Evidence on the First Financial Bubble.” Journal of Financial Economics 108.3 (2013): 585–607.
Funke, Manuel, Moritz Schularick & Christoph Trebesch. “Going to Extremes: Politics after Financial Crises, 1870–2014.” European Economic Review 88 (2016): 227–260.
Gorton, Gary B. “The Subprime Panic.” European Financial Management 15.1 (2009): 10–46.
Harris, Ron. “The Bubble Act: Its Passage and Its Effects on Business Organization.” Journal of Economic History 54.3 (1994): 610–627.
Jensen, Michael C. “Eclipse of the Public Corporation.” Harvard Business Review 67.5 (1989): 61–74.
Laeven, Luc & Fabian Valencia. “Systemic Banking Crises Database: An Update.” IMF Working Paper WP/12/163 (2012).
Mixon, Scott. “The Crisis of 1873: Perspectives from Multiple Asset Classes.” Journal of Economic History 68.3 (2008): 722–757.
Neal, Larry. “How It All Began: The Monetary and Financial Architecture of Europe.” Financial History Review 7.2 (2000): 117–140.
Obstfeld, Maurice, Jay C. Shambaugh & Alan M. Taylor. “The Trilemma in History.” Review of Economics and Statistics 87.3 (2005): 423–438.
Ofek, Eli & Matthew Richardson. “DotCom Mania: The Rise and Fall of Internet Stock Prices.” Journal of Finance 58.3 (2003): 1113–1137.
Peart, Sandra & David Levy. “The ‘Vanity of the Philosopher.’” History of Political Economy 37.3 (2005): 383–408.
Radelet, Steven & Jeffrey Sachs. “The East Asian Financial Crisis.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1 (1998): 1–74.
Rockoff, Hugh. “Some Evidence on the Real Price of Gold.” A Retrospective on the Classical Gold Standard. NBER/U Chicago, 1984.
Roll, Richard. “The International Crash of October 1987.” Financial Analysts Journal 44.5 (1988): 19–35.
Romer, Christina D. & David H. Romer. “Does Monetary Policy Matter?” NBER Macroeconomics Annual 4 (1989): 121–170.
Schularick, Moritz & Alan M. Taylor. “Credit Booms Gone Bust: Monetary Policy, Leverage Cycles, and Financial Crises, 1870–2008.” American Economic Review 102.2 (2012): 1029–1061.
Skidelsky, Robert. “The Relevance of Keynes.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 35.1 (2011): 1–13.
White, Eugene N. “The Stock Market Boom and Crash of 1929 Revisited.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 4.2 (1990): 67–83.

Data & statistical resources

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Historical Statistics of the United States: Cambridge University Press, online edition
Reinhart & Rogoff data appendix
NBER Working Paper archive
IMF World Economic Outlook Database

Syllabus subject to revision. Students will be notified of any changes in writing.