Readings

Students are urged to purchase the following books for this class:

[Rand] = Buy at Amazon Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. Plume, 1994. ISBN: 9780452273337. [Preview with Google Books]

[Watson] = Buy at Amazon 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] = Buy at Amazon 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

Buy at Amazon Kuhn, Thomas S. "The Route to Normal Science." Chapter 2 in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780226458120. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "The Nature of Normal Science." Chapter 3 in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780226458120. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions." Chapter 9 in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780226458120. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "Revolutions as Changes of World View." Chapter 10 in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780226458120. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Friedman, Milton. "Methodology of Positive Economics." In Essays in Positive Economics. University of Chicago Press, 1966. ISBN: 9780226264035. [Preview with Google Books]

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]

Buy at Amazon Friedman, Milton. Chapters 1–3, 6, 10, and 12–13 in Capitalism and Freedom: 40th Anniversary Edition. University of Chicago Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780226264219. [Preview with Google Books]

4

Becker

Gilder

Buy at Amazon Becker, Gary S. "The Economic Approach to Human Behavior." Chapter 1 in The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. University of Chicago Press, 1978. ISBN: 9780226041124. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "Altruism, Egoism, and Genetic Fitness: Economics and Sociobiology." Chapter 13 in The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. University of Chicago Press, 1978. ISBN: 9780226041124. 

Buy at Amazon Gilder, George. "The Mandate for Capitalism." Part One in Wealth and Poverty: A New Edition for the Twenty-First Century. Regnery Publishing, 2012. ISBN: 9781596988095. [Preview with Google Books]

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.

Buy at Amazon Elster, Jon. "Marxist Methodology." Chapter 2 in An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780521338318. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "Marxian Economics." Chapter 4 in An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780521338318 

Buy at Amazon ———. "Historical Materialism." Chapter 6 in An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780521338318 

Buy at Amazon ———. "Class Consciousness and Class Struggle." Chapter 7 in An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780521338318. 

Buy at Amazon ———. "Marx's Theory of Politics." Chapter 8 in An Introduction to Karl Marx. Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780521338318. 

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.

Buy at Amazon Foley, Duncan K. "The Severest Critic." Chapter 3 in Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology. Belknap Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780674027299. [Preview with Google Books]

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

Buy at Amazon Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. 2nd ed. Beacon Press, 2001, pp. 43–52, 68–76, 130–50, 192–200, 200–19, and 249–58. ISBN: 9780807056431.

Buy at Amazon Schumpeter, Joseph A. "Can Capitalism Survive?" Part II (especially pages 121–63) in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. 3rd ed. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008. ISBN: 9780061561610. [Preview with Google Books]

10 Keynes Buy at Amazon Keynes, John Maynard. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965, pp. 3–34, and 245–79. ISBN: 9780156347112. [Preview with Google Books]
V. The Rise and Fall of the Corporate State
10 Galbraith and Solow

Buy at Amazon Galbraith, John Kenneth. "The Corporation." Chapter 7 in The New Industrial State. Princeton University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780691131412. [Preview with Google Books]

Solow, Robert M. "The New Industrial State or Son of Affluence." The Public Interest, no. 9 (1967): 100–19.

11 Piore and Sabel

Buy at Amazon Piore, Michael J., and Charles F. Sabel. "Mass Production as Destiny and Blind Decision." Chapter 2 in The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. Basic Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780465075614.

Buy at Amazon ———. "The Corporation." Chapter 3 in The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. Basic Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780465075614.

Buy at Amazon ———. "Possibilities for Prosperity: International Keynesianism and Flexible Specialization." Chapter 10 in The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. Basic Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780465075614.

VI. The Crisis  
12-13

The Crisis

Davis

Lo

Buy at Amazon Davis, Gerald F. Managed by the Markets: How Finance Re-Shaped America. Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 1–14, and 235–55. ISBN: 9780199216611. [Preview with Google Books]

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

Buy at Amazon Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. "Introduction." In Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Revised and expanded edition. Penguin Books, 2009. ISBN: 9780143115267. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "Biases and Blunders." Chapter 1 in Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Revised and expanded edition. Penguin Books, 2009. ISBN: 9780143115267. [Preview with Google Books]

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

Buy at Amazon Arendt, Hannah. "Vita Activa and the Human Condition." Chapter 1 in The Human Condition. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780226025988. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "The Term Vita Activa." Chapter 2 in The Human Condition. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780226025988.[Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon ———. "Eternity Versus Immortality." Chapter 5 in The Human Condition. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780226025988. [Preview with Google Books]

Buy at Amazon Sacks, Oliver. Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf. Vintage Books, 2000. ISBN: 9780375704079.

Buy at Amazon Lester, Richard K., and Michael J. Piore. Innovation—The Missing Dimension. Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780674019942. [Preview with Google Books]

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.

Buy at Amazon 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]

Buy at Amazon ———. "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.