Technology and the global economy, 1000-2000

Seminars: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This course is a graduate / advanced undergraduate reading seminar in the global history of the last millennium, with a particular focus on technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. This course will be of interest to students wanting to engage with core problems in economic and global history, particularly the medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics covered will include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval 'world systems'; the 'age of discovery' both east and west; the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems and global population movements; the industrial revolution and its discontents (both of its participants and its historians); the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; the 'curse' of natural resources and the fate of Africa; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Participants will have the opportunity to explore in depth a major controversy in global economic history or the history of technology, but will also become familiar with the range of debate that informs current research and teaching across a variety of sub-fields in medieval, early modern and modern history more broadly. Participants will also review the range of methodologies available to explore these questions as they prepare for their own research projects.

Participants are expected to engage actively in the weekly seminar, to write short responses to the readings for each session, to prepare at least once for leadership of the seminar discussion, and to produce a substantial work of original scholarship as a culminating exercise. The final project could take the form of an extended review essay of a major debate in the field, or a research project centered on an archival body of evidence that would further inform a topic covered by the course.

For more information on the class activities, see the Assignments section.

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