Students are urged to purchase the following books for this class:
[Rand] = Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. Plume, 1994. ISBN: 9780452273337. [Preview with Google Books]
[Watson] = Watson, James D. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. Touchstone, 2001. ISBN: 9780743216302. [Preview with Google Books]
[Kidder] = Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine. Back Bay Books, 2000. ISBN: 9780316491976. [Preview with Google Books]
These and other required readings are featured in the table below.
Note: During Week 7, students completed the midterm exam.
WEEK # | TOPICS | READINGS |
---|---|---|
I. Introduction and Overview | ||
1 | The Evolution of the Industrial State | No readings |
2 | Paradigms in Social Science |
|
II. Liberalism and Neoclassical Economics | ||
2 | The Fountainhead. Directed by King Vidor. Black and White, 114 min. 1949. | No readings |
3 |
Discussion of Rand Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom |
[Rand]
|
4 |
Becker Gilder |
|
III. Marxism, Economics and Politics | ||
5 |
Marxism: The Manifesto Elster |
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." 1848. anu.edu.au. Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Chapters XIV, and XV, Sections 1, and 2. marxists.org.
|
6 |
Capital, The Division of Labor and Machinery Bowles and Gintis Foley |
Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. "The Crisis of Liberal Democratic Capitalism: The Case of the United States." Politics & Society 11, no. 1 (1982): 51–93.
|
IV. The Social Embeddedness of the Economy | ||
8 |
Introduction Weber |
Weber, Max. "The Spirit of Capitalism." Chapter 2 in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. marxists.org. ———. "Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism." Chapter 5 in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. marxists.org. |
9 |
Polanyi Schumpeter |
|
10 | Keynes |
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V. The Rise and Fall of the Corporate State | ||
10 | Galbraith and Solow |
Solow, Robert M. "The New Industrial State or Son of Affluence." The Public Interest, no. 9 (1967): 100–19. |
11 | Piore and Sabel |
|
VI. The Crisis | ||
12-13 |
The Crisis Davis Lo |
Dubner, Stephen J. "This is Your Brain on Prosperity: Andrew Lo on Fear, Greed, and Crisis Management." January 9, 2009. freakonomics.com. |
VII. Recasting Individualism | ||
13 |
Thaler and Sunstein DellaVigna |
DellaVigna, Stefano. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field." Journal of Economic Literature 47, no. 2 (2009): 315–72. |
14 |
Arendt Sacks Lester and Piore |
|
15 |
The Soul of A New Machine The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA | [Watson] [Kidder] |
Recommended Readings
Rawls, John. "Some Reasons for the Maximin Criterion." American Economic Review 64, no. 2 (1974): 141–6.
Foley, Duncan K. "Adam's Vision." Chapter 1 in Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology. Belknap Press, 2008, pp. 1–4. ISBN: 9780674027299. [Preview with Google Books]
———. "Grand Illusions." Chapter 6 in Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology. Belknap Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780674027299. [Preview with Google Books]
Althusser, Louis. For Marx (Part 1), pp. 94–101, 104–7, and 110–16. marx2mao.com.
Althusser, Louis, and Étienne Balibar. "The Errors of Classical Economics: Outline of a Concept of Historical Time." Chapter 4 in Reading Capital (Part 2), pp. 91–101. marx2mao.com.
Krugman, Paul. "How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?" New York Times Magazine, September 2, 2009.
Solow, Robert M. "How To Understand the Disaster." New York Review of Books, May 14, 2009.