Rethinking Value, Labor and Trade in the History of Economic Thought

Catalog description

We are surrounded by talk of capitalism, but understandings of capitalism are often impressionistic, overly broad, overly narrow, rarely historical, and hard to agree on. This course explores the making of modern capitalism through critical readings of canonical economic texts from the 8th century to the present. It is primarily oriented around three controversial and influential themes in the discipline of economics: value, labor, and trade. We will trace the evolution of these concepts in order to answer questions that go to the heart of how capitalism functions: why is it that only some labor is considered valuable (and by whom)? How has our understanding of economic value changed over time and why does this matter? How is classical economic thought implicated in the history of empire? What is the role of the state in economic development? Is the history of economics a history of capitalist crises? To take on these questions, we will read economists and political economists including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek. The goal will be to historicize these texts, place ideas in the worlds these writers lived in, and see what they reveal about capitalism's past, present, and future. Along the way we will be introduced to major episodes in the history of capitalism—including the industrial revolution, the emergence of mass democracy, the Great Depression, World War II, and the "neoliberal" turn. Alongside "canonical" texts, students will read secondary source histories and critical economic perspectives to help them contextualize these works.