Department of
Economics
Economics
229.01 (History 229.01)
American
Economic History
Fall 2008 Professor Paul G. Munyon
MW 2:15 –4:05 Carnegie 207
ARH 315 x3142
Professor’s Home Page:
http://www.grinnell.edu/individuals/munyon/index.html
Course
Home Page:
http://www.grinnell.edu/individuals/munyon/ecn22908.html
Organization
This class will meet for approximately three hours each week. Most of the class time will be devoted to lecture, discussion, and student reports. Economics 229 functions as a working seminar in American economic history. Each student should be prepared to be an active participant in each class session.
Papers
Each student will write three (3) short research papers (5+ typed pages) and one "literature" paper (10+ typed pages) for this course. The research papers will be on topics selected from the List of Selected Topics for the course. The thesis for each paper should be relevant to the topic for the class presentation made at the appropriate point during the semester. Each paper will be due no later than week after the class presentation associated with that paper.
The primary task literature paper requires both an analysis of the "economic history" content of selected pieces of American fiction and the student’s reanalysis of the ways in which the selected works of fiction contributed to the student’s knowledge of economics history. Each student will have a great deal of freedom to select the works of fiction he/she wishes to analyze. An annotated bibliography of "appropriate" works of American fiction follows the syllabus. You should use the bibliography as a guide for your selection of literature to read for this assignment and for supplemental reading for your research papers. This paper is due by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 18, 2008.
Please submit all drafts and all finished papers as Word documents via email.
Presentations
Each student will make three formal presentations to the class. Each presentation will be approximately 10 to 15 minutes long and will involve the student both in presenting additional information to the class on the topic and in directing class discussion of the topic under consideration. The research topic selected determines the timing of each presentation. The syllabus lists the research topics available and the date for each presentation.
Grading
Each research paper will account for approximately 10 percent of
your final grade. Each class
presentation will account for approximately 10 percent of your final
grade. The "literature" paper
will account for 25 percent of your course grade. Your participation in class discussion will
account for at least 15 percent of your grade.
[NOTE: Your active participation in class discussion
is essential for the success of your learning experience and for that of the
other members of this course. Your
failure to participate satisfactorily in the meetings of this course could
result in a significant reduction in your final grade for this course. EACH
STUDENT SHOULD PLAN TO ATTEND EVERY CLASS AND TO BE PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE IN
CLASS DISCUSSION AT EACH SESSION.]
Recommendations for
additional supporting readings may be provided throughout
the semester.
Economics 229.01
American Economic History
Research Paper and Class Presentation Selection List
Topic Date Presenter
Whitney and the Cotton Gin September 10 PGM
Erie Canal September 15 Michael
Lowell and Textile Mills September 17 James
Steamboats on Western Rivers September 22 Alec
The Bank War September 24 Mark
September 29 PGM
McCormick and Mechanization October 1 Will
Slavery October 6 PGM
The South Secedes October 8 Tyler
Civil War October 13 PGM
Reconstruction October 15 Mark
Fall Break
The Transcontinental Railroad October 27 All Read Stephen Ambrose
The Transcontinental Railroad October 29 All Read Stephen Ambrose
Sharecropping November 3 Michael
November 5 PGM
Cattle Town versus Farmers November 10 Will
Agrarian Discontent November 12 James
Green Backs and Free Silver Tyler
Wanamaker and Store-bought Clothes November 17 PGM
Inventions that Drove Growth Michael
Rockefeller and Oil November 19 James
Carnegie and Steel Alec
The "Cross of Gold" November 24 Michael
Thanksgiving Break November 26
The FRS December 1 PGM
WWI Mark
The Roaring 20s December 3 PGM
The Great Crash Will
The Great Depression December 8 PGM
The New Deal Alec
WWII December 10 PGM
Annotated Bibliography
Edward Eggleston, Roxy (1878): Small Indiana town; religious commitment; class struggle. ST, FP, CS, LC (MW)
Henry James, The American (1877): Rich Americans abroad; interaction of
European aristocracy and American rich.
UC (
Henry Adams, Democracy (1880):
E.W. Howe, The Story of a Country Town (1883):
John Hay, The Bread-Winners (1884): Urban (
H.F. Keenan, The Money-Makers (1885) [reply to The Bread-Winners]: Urban union organizing; labor unrest; development of wealth; political and commercial corruption. LS, DW, C (E, MW)
William Dean Howells, A Modern Instance (1882): business corruption, middle class life in urban and rural settings. SEC, MC (NE, W)
William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885): middle class business; work ethic; interactions of old wealth and new wealth; interaction of classes; urban/rural contrasts. MC, BS, CS, UL, RU (NE)
William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890): economics and ethics of publishing; labor strikes; socialism/capitalism debate; urban life. UL, BS, LS, S/C (NE)
William Dean Howells, Quality of Mercy (1892): economically induced crime; urban life; rural to urban. SEC, UL RU (NE)
Mary Wilkins Freeman, A Humble Romance (1887), A New England Nun (1891): decaying rural social order in New England. RL, FP (NE)
Henry Blake Fuller, The Cliff-Dwellers (1893), With the Procession (1895), On the Stairs (1918): vicissitudes of urban financial and social life. UHF, UC CS (MW)
Stephen Crane, Maggie, A Girl of the
Streets (1893):
Stephen Crane, "The Blue Hotel," "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (1890s): Western small town from Eastern perspective. RU (W)
Hamlin Garland, Main-Traveled Roads (1891), Boy Life on the Prairie (1899): Midwestern rural life; some urban back to rural. RU, RL, AE (MW)
Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884): Midwestern and Southern slave economics; lower class life; middle class customs and mores. SE, LC, UC, MC, FP (MW, S)
Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900): effects of money on small Midwestern town's traditional values. SEC, MC (MW)
Kate Chopin, Bayou Folk (1894): Southern rural life; interactions of races and classes. RL, CS (S)
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899): upper middle class Southern life; woman's role in patriarchal society. UC, FP (S)
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs
(1896): Decaying social and economic
order of rural
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901): slave economics; role of freed slaves in American economy. SE (S,E)
W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903): Southern sharecroppers and rural farmers; slave economics; role of blacks in American economic life. SE, RL, FP (S, NE)
Frank Norris, McTeague (1899): Greed and money-obsession in urban West. SEC, WC (W)
Frank Norris, The Octopus (1901), The Pit (1903): California farm life; railroads; agricultural finance, Chicago Board of Trade. RU, RL, AE, RR (W, MW)
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900): Rural to urban; various urban classes and their interaction; rail strikes; family patterns. RU, CS, LS, FP, UP, MC, WC (MW, E)
Theodore Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt (1911): love, politics, and manufacturing in urban
Theodore Dreiser, The Financier, The Titan, The Stoic (1912, 14, 47): Urban big business, development of wealth; urban politics, banking, finance. UL, UHF, PL (E, MW)
Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (1925): Winning wealth in urban world; factory life; working class. DW, UL, WC (MW, E)
Gertrude Stein, Three Lives (1909): Immigrant and black working class, urban. IM, WC, UL (E, S)
Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (1913), My Antonia (1918), A Lost Lady (1923): Farm life on the prairies; rural/urban tensions; farm economics; immigrants. RU, RL, IM, AE (MW, W)
Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg Ohio (1919), The Triumph of the Egg (1921): Small town Midwestern life; family patterns; rural/urban tensions; decaying social and economic patterns. RU, ST (MW)
Sherwood Anderson, Poor White (1920): emerging industrialization of a small Midwestern town; decaying social and economic patterns; labor unrest; evolving class distinctions. RU, ST, DW, CS, BS, LS (MW)
Sherwood Anderson, Many Marriages (1923): deadening business routine. BS, ST (MW)
Sherwood Anderson, Dark Laughter
(1925): port-World War I industrial
sterility; middle class life; small-town factory life; urban to rural.
Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology (1915): Small town
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906):
Upton Sinclair, The Metropolis (1908): effects on urban society of emerging great fortunes. UL, DW, UHF (E)
Upton Sinclair, King Coal (1917):
Upton Sinclair, Oil! (1927): oil monopolies; business and political corruption; socialism. S/C, SEC, PL (E)
Sinclair Lewis, The Job (1917):
Sinclair Lewis,
Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (1922): Midwestern business and politics. ST, BS, SEC, PL (MW)
Eugene O'Neill, The Hairy Ape (1922): working class/upper class interactions; labor organizations. LS, S/C, CS (E)
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), Tales of the Jazz Age (1922): urban wealth; new wealth/old wealth tensions; development of wealth. DW, UL, UC (MW, E)
Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time (1925):
Americans in Europe; growing up in Michigan. FP, RL, RU (MW,
Ellen Glasgow, Barren Ground (1925): rural
John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925),
O.E. Rolvaag, Giants in the Earth (1927), Peder Victorious (1929), Their Father's God (1931): immigrant pioneers; rural prairie farm life; agricultural struggles. IM, AE, FP (MW)
Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road (1932):
Erskine Caldwell, God's Little Acre (1933):
James T. Farrell, Young Lonigan (1932), Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934), Judgment Day (1935), A World I Never Made (1936): Urban lower-class life. UL, UP, CS (MW)
Henry Roth, Call It Sleep (1934): urban poverty; working class immigrant life. IM, UP, WC (E)
John O'Hara, Appointment in
Ellen Glasgow, Vein of Iron (1935): poor Southern rural life; Depression. RL, AE, DEP (S)
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937): rural Southern black experience; economics of starting a town. SE, BE, FP, CS, RL (S)
John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle (1936): Labor unrest in fruit-picking industry, Communism. LS, RL, C/S (W)
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men (1937): Itinerant farm labor. LS, RL (W)
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939): Itinerant farm labor; labor unrest in fruit-picking industry; Depression. LS, RL, DEP (SW, W)
William Faulkner, The Unvanquished (1938): Southern life in Civil War times; interchange between classes; slave economy. SE, CS (S)
William Faulkner, The Hamlet (1940): Southern rural life; development of economic power in a small community; labor unrest. RL, DW, LS (S)
Richard Wright, Native Son (1940):
Richard Wright, Black Boy (1945): Southern black life; rural to urban, south to north. SE, RU, RL, FP (S)
Eugene O'Neill, The Iceman Cometh (1946): urban working class, anarchism, decaying social system. LS, S/C, WC (E)
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947):
Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955): Southern wealth, plantation economics. UC, AE (S)
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949): middle class urban conflicts of business ethics and personal values. BS, MC, FP (E)
Arthur Miller, A View from the Bridge (1955): Longshoremen; illegal immigrants. UL, LS, WC (E)
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952): Southern black rural experience; northern factory life; rural to urban; communism. RU, WC, LS, C/S (S,E)
Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953): Chicago Jewish community; search for wealth; labor unrest. UL, IM, DW, LS (MW)
Saul Bellow, Seize the Day (1956): Jewish urban community; search for money. UL (MW)
Richard Wright, The Outsider
(1953):
Richard Wright, Eight Men (1961): urban and rural black experience. RU, SE (S, MW)
Bernard Malamud, The Assistant (1957):
Bernard Malamud, The Magic Barrel (1958): Stories of New York Jewish immigrant community. IM, UP, UL (E)
John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961): Collapse of New England aristocracy. UL, SEC (NE)
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): rural black life; small-town store. RL, FP (S)
Annotation Code for Bibliography
ABBREVIATIONS:
RL: Depictions of rural life
UL: Depictions of urban life
ST: Depictions of small town life
RU: Works dealing with the movement between rural and urban locations
WC: Depictions of working class life
LC: Depictions of lower class life, extreme poverty
MC: Depictions of middle class life
UC: Depictions of upper class life
IM: Depictions of lives of immigrants
UP: Depictions of urban poverty
CS: Depictions of tensions, interactions, and struggles between various classes
FP: Works that focus on various family patterns and familial interactions
AE: Works dealing with agricultural economics, farm management, etc.
BS: Works dealing with the workings of business
UHF: Works dealing with the world of urban high financial corporations, etc.
SE: Works dealing with slave economy and the role of blacks in the American economy
DW: Works depicting the accumulation and development of wealth, of the attempts to accumulate wealth
BE: Works probing the most basic economic needs--food, clothing, shelter, fuel--and how to procure them
RR: Works dealing with the development and influence of the railroads
SEC: Works focusing on social and economic and political corruption
PL: Works dealing with politics and political life
S/C: Works dealing with questions of socialism vs. capitalism
(NE): Works taking place in the northeast
(E): Works taking place in the East
(MW): Works taking place
in the
(S): Works taking place in the South
(W): Works taking place in the West
(SW): Works taking place in the Southwest