History 753

Fall 2002

Comparative History Seminar -- History of Capitalism

UW-Madison

Office Hours

M 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Semester Schedule

Sept. 9

Sept. 16

Sept. 23

Sept. 30

Oct. 7

Oct. 14

Oct. 21

Oct. 28

Nov. 4

Nov. 11

Nov. 18

Nov. 25

Dec. 2

Dec. 9

Dec. 16

Sept. 9

Introductions

Part I.  Conceptual and Methodological Tools

Sept. 16

Conceptual Tools -- Part I: classical paradigms

• Reading assignment

  • Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), entries on “capitalism” and “industry.”

  • Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, ed. Edwin Cannan (Chicago:  University of Chicago, 1976), Book I, chs. i-ix; Book II, ch. iii; Book III, ch. iv.

  • Karl Marx, selections from Capital, in Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader, 2d ed. (New York: Norton, 1978), pp. 220, 294-438.

  • Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, intro. by Anthony Giddens, 2d ed. (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1976), portion of Introduction (pp. 17-27) and Ch. 2 (47-78).

• Writing assignment

  • How would Smith, Marx, and Weber respond to the question "What is the history of capitalism?"  Max. 3 pp.

Sept. 23

Conceptual Tools -- Part II:  20th-century paradigms (snapshots)

• Reading assigment -- be sure to read them in order!

  • Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation:  The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time [1st Beacon paperback edition] (Boston:  Beacon Press, 1957, © 1944), pp. 3-5 (through the section break only), 33-76, 130-162, 201-219.

  • W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth:  A Non-Communist Manifesto (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1960), ix-xi, 1-16.

  • Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, a Book of Essays (Cambridge, Mass.:  Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1966), 5-30. 

  • Fernand Braudel, Capitalism and Material Life, 1400-1800 (London:  Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967), xi-xv.

  • Andre Gunder Frank, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America:  Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil (New York and London:  Monthly Review Press, (c) 1967, 1969), xi-xix, 1-28.

  • David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus:  Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the present  (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1969), 1-40.

  • Immanuel Wallerstein, "The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System:  Concepts for Comparative Analysis," Comparative Studies in Society and History 16 (1974): 387-415. -- also available online.

  • Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View (London: Macmillan Press, 1974), complete (57 pp. of text).

  • Charles Sabel and Jonathan Zeitlin, “Historical Alternatives to Mass Production:  Politics, Markets and Technology in Nineteenth-Century Industrialization,” Past and Present, no. 108 (August 1985): 133-176.

  • Paul A. David, "Understanding the Economics of QWERTY:  The Necessity of History," in [ed. collection], 30-49.  Originally published as “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY,” American Economic Review 75 (May 1985): 332-337, which is available online.

  • Joan Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York:  Columbia University Press, 1988), 28-50 ("Gender:  A Useful Category of Historical Analysis") and 68-90 ("Women in The Making of the English Working Class").

• Writing assignment

  • Summarize twentieth-century challenges to the classical paradigms.  Max. 3 pp.

Sept. 30

Methodology -- comparative history, transnational history

• Reading assignment

  • Marc Bloch, "Toward a Comparative History of European Societies," in Frederick C. Lane and Jelle C. Riermersma, eds., Enterprise and Secular Change: Readings in Economic History (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1953), pp. 494-521.  This essay was first published in 1928.
  • William H. Sewell, "Marc Bloch and the Logic of Comparative History," History and Theory 6 (1967): 208-218. -- also available online.
  • Theda Skocpol and Margaret Somers, "The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry," Comparative Studies in Society and History 22 (April 1980): 174-197.  -- also available online.
  • Selections from "AHR Forum:  Bringing Regionalism Back to History," American Historical Review 104 (October 1999): 1156-1201 -- essays by Celia Applegate and Kären Wigen. 
  • Selections from "The Nation and Beyond:  A Special Issue," Journal of American History 86 (December 1999) -- essays by David Thelen (965-975), Ian Tyrrell (1015-44), Robin D. G. Kelly (1045-77), and Marcel van der Linden (1078-92).
  • Thomas Bender, "Introduction:  Historians, the Nation, and the Plenitude of Narratives," in idem, ed.., Rethinking American History in a Global Age (Berkeley:  University of California Press, 2002), pp. 1-21.
  • "AHR Forum:  Asia and Europe in the World Economy," American Historical Review 107 (April 2002): 419-480

Part II.  Comparative Studies

Writing assignment:  chose one of the three works in this section and write a brief book review (max. 750 words) for the (imaginary) journal History of Capitalism.  Due October 28.

Oct. 7

• Alfred Chandler, Scale and Scope:  The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge, Mass.:  Harvard University Press/Belknap Press, 1990), introduction, chs. 1-2, introductions to parts II-IV, conclusion.  Browse the remaining chapters.

Oct. 14

• John H. M. Laslett, Colliers Across the Sea:  A Comparative Study of Class Formation in Scotland and the American Midwest, 1830-1924 (Urbana and Chicago:  University of Illinois Press, 2000).

Oct. 21

• Liah Greenfeld, The Spirit of Capitalism:  Nationalism and Economic Growth (Cambridge, Mass.:  Harvard University Press, 2001).

Part III.  National Studies

Writing assignment:  write a historiographical essay (ca. 20-25 pp.) on a topic/period/place of your choice in the history of capitalism.  Due December 16.

Oct. 28

• Juan Mora-Torres, The Making of the Mexican Border:  The State, Capital, and Society in Nuevo León, 1848-1910 (Austin:  University of Texas Press, 2001).

Nov. 4

• Raymond E. Dumett, El Dorado in West Africa:  The Gold-Mining Frontier, African Labor, and Colonial Capitalism in the Gold Coast, 1875-1900 (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, Oxford: James Currey Ltd., 1998).

Nov. 11

• Richard Franklin Bensel, The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900 (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Nov. 18

• Jeroen Touwen, Extremes in the Archipelago:  Trade and Economic Development in the Outer Islands of Indonesia, 1900-1942 (Leiden:  KITLV Press, 2001) -- distributed by the University of Washington Press.

Nov. 25

Workshop on historiographic papers-in-progress

Dec. 2

Workshop on historiographic papers-in-progress

Dec. 9

Workshop on historiographic papers-in-progress

Dec. 16

Historiographic papers due