Undergraduate

                                                       ECONOMICS 
362 Dr. Howard Bodenhorn
                                                         HISTORY 
362 St. Lawrence University
                                              TOPICS IN ECONOMIC 
HISTORY Fall 1990


Required Text: Gary M. Walton and Hugh Rockoff.  History of the
American Economy    (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990)

Source Readings:  Selected readings listed in the syllabus are
available through Karen Pcolar in the Economics Department office
at a small price.

Grading system:
     Two short essays (explained on the last page) @ 20% each
     Midterm  @ 20 %
     Final    @ 40 %

Purpose:

     Since the title of this course is Topics in Economic History
the lectures outside readings, and the essays will reflect the
fundamental debates that have arisen in the past 25 years in the
"new economic history" or "cliometrics."   The purpose is to
introduce the student to the application of economics to the study
of history.  The lectures and outside readings will highlight some
of those debates and emphasize the use of economics in answering
important historical questions.  The lectures and the readings do
not offer a broad, sweeping overview of the course of American
economic development from Jamestown to the space shuttle.  The
textbook provides this overview, and sets the stage for much of
what will be discussed in class.  

     The readings for the semester are listed below.  No specific
dates have been set as I hope to foster discussion and may,
therefore, spend more or less time on some topics than I
anticipate.  I will let you know where we are in the reading list
as we go.


Course outline:

Introduction and Trivia

     Donald McCloskey, "Does the Past Have Useful Economics?" 
Journal of Economic Literature 14 (June 1976): 434-461.

I. The Colonial Period

     A. Mercantilism and the North American Colonies:  Wealth and
Economic Growth

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapters 2 and 3

     B. Population and Labor: Indentured Servants and Slaves

          Walton and Rockoff, Chapters 4 and 5

          David Galenson, "The Rise and Fall of Indentured
Servitude in the Americas:    An Economic Analysis," Journal of
Economic History 44 (1984): 1-26.

     C. Colonial Monetary Practices: Land Banks and Tobacco Notes

          Donald Kemmerer, "The Colonial Loan Office System in New
Jersey," Journal of Political Economy (1939): 867-874.

     D. Navigating the Navigation Acts: Or, Was the Revolution
about Economics?

          Walton and Rockoff, Chapter 6

          Thomas M. Doerflinger, "Reluctant Revolutionaries,"
Chapter 4 in A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise (Chapel Hill:
University of N.C. Press, 1986).

II. The Early National and Antebellum Eras: New Realities for a New
Nation

     A. Transition from Colonial Status

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapters 7 and 8

          Donald R. Adams, Jr., "American Neutrality and
Prosperity, 1793-1808: A Reconsideration," Journal of Economic
History 40 (1980): 713-738.

     B. Industrial Beginnings: Resource Intensive Production

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapters 9 - 11

          Donald Hoke, "British and American Horology: Time to Test
Factor Substitution Models," Journal of Economic History 47 (1987):
321-

     C. Red-dogs, Shinplasters, and Wildcats: Money and Banking in
the Antebellum Era

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 12

          Arthur Rolnick and Warren Weber, "Free Banking, Wildcat
Banking, and Shinplasters," Federal Reserve of Minneapolis
Quarterly Review 6 (1982): 10-19.

     D. Slavery: The Peculiar Institution and the Coming of the
Civil War

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 13

          Robert Fogel, "Unraveling Some Economic Riddles," chapter
3 in Without Consent or Contract (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989).

III. Between the Wars

     A.  Agriculture in the North: Was There a Basis for Agrarian
Protest

          James Stock, "Real Estate Mortgages, Foreclosures and
Midwestern Agrarian Unrest, 1865-1920," Journal of Economic History
(1983): 89-

     B. Agriculture in the South: 40 Acres and a Mule

          Roger Ransom and Richard Sutch, "Debt Peonage in the
Cotton South After the Civil War," Journal of Economic History 32
(1972): 641-669.

     C. The Railroads: Catalyst for Growth or Just Another Industry

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 16

          Robert Fogel, "Railroads and the Axiom of
Indispensibility," in Ralph L. Andreano, ed., New Views on American
Economic Development (Cambridge, Ma.: Schenkman Publishing Co.,
1965).

     D. Money and Finance in Postbellum America: Or, Was the Wizard
of OZ Social
         Commentary?

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 19

          Hugh Rockoff, "The Wizard of OZ as Nineteenth Century
Monetary Allegory," Journal of Political Economy (1990):

IV. America's Rise, Collapse and Resurrection: The Roaring Twenties
and the Great
     Depression
     A. America Takes Over: World War I

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 21

     B. The Roaring Twenties

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 22

          Charles Holt, "Who Benefitted from the Prosperity of the
Twenties," Explorations in Economic History (1977): 277-289.

     C. When the Ticker Ran Late: The Great Crash and After

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 23

          Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz, The Great
Contraction, 1929-1933, pp.3-123.

V. The Rise of Big Government

     A. The New Deal

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 24

     B. The Second World War

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 25

     C. Postwar Growth: Has America Passed Her Peak?

          Walton and Rockoff: Chapter 31

Style and Substance of Essays

     Two or three additional readings will be selected from one of
the main categories listed above (i.e. slavery, agrarian protest,
great depression) and assigned.   You will be asked to carefully
read and critically evaluate the arguments in each paper and write
a critical review of the articles of about 5 to 7 pages in length.

     These are not to be "book report" type essays.  I expect some
economic reasoning and historical setting.  You should consider the
thesis each author is attempting to put foreard, the manner in
which he/she makes the argument, and the sort of data or anecdotal
evidence used to support it.  Several of the articles will have
radically different conclusions.  How is it that such different
conlcusions are drawn?  Are the conclusions sensitive to the nature
of the supporting arguments, or the data employed?  How do these
interpretations mesh with what you were taught in high school
history?  These are the sorts of questions I want you to deal with
in the essays.

     You will be given about two (2) weeks to write each paper. 
This will give you a chance to carefully read the assigned
articles, discuss them with me, and write your papers.  It is,
likewise, a short enough period that you will not have a lot of
time to fret about it and worry it to death.  Like the Nike
commercials stress, the best way to do anything is "JUST DO IT."