Europe and Capitalism: A Cultural History
EUH 5934
Dr. Sheryl Kroen Office Hours: Thursday 1-4 PM
219 Keene-Flint Hall Class: Tuesday, 6:15-9:10 PM
Keene- Flint 13
Description: This course will explore the cultural history of capitalism in Europe since the 17th century. Divided into four parts we will study: 1) The Building Blocks of Capitalist Culture (17C); 2) The Heroes and Narratives of Capitalism (18C); 3) The Triumph of Capitalist Culture (19C); 4) The Crisis and Rebirth of Capitalism (20C). Secondary readings offer different approaches to a cultural history of capitalism from literary critics, anthropologists, and historians of Europe, the Atlantic, and the United States. However, the course is designed primarily around primary sources including seminal writings in political economy (by John Locke, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin), in anthropology (by Karl Polanyi), as well as novels (by Daniel Defoe and Jules Verne), films (from the Marshall Plan era), and political and economic treatises written during the postwar economic recovery (by T.H. Marshall, F. Hayek, Jean Fourastié, W. W. Rostow).
Requirements: Students are expected to participate actively in seminar. To facilitate this process, students will write 1-page reviews of each week’s reading 8 out of the 13 weeks that we have common readings. In addition each student will co-lead a seminar twice during the semester. This task involves: 1) developing a brief, 1-2 page bibliography on a suggested topic related to the week’s reading, to be handed out to fellow students; 2) reading one additional book from this bibliography and writing a one-page review of the book, and discussing this book as part of the week’s in-class presentation; 3) opening up the seminar discussion with a few critical questions raised by the readings. In addition to this regular preparation for class discussion, students are expected to write three papers integrating the semester’s readings: 1) a paper of 7-10 pages (due on October 12) on the cultural history of early capitalism; 2) a paper of 7-10 pages (due on November 9) on the nineteenth century; 3) a paper of 7-10 pages (due on Dec. 7) on the cultural history of capitalism (any period, including, if you like, a follow-up to one of the earlier papers). The last day of class, December 4, students will give an oral presentation on this final paper.
Required Reading: Books available at Gatortextbooks, Inc. (behind Calico Jacks, in Creekside Mall; 3501 SW 2nd Ave., Suite D, 374-4500), and on 2-hour reserve at Library West. Articles and chapters and excerpts are available on electronic reserve. You will need to register on ARES in order to access these readings.
Available for purchase at Gatortextbooks:
Martha C. Howell, Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American Thought, 1550-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (NY: Hill and Wang, 1983)
Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade (NY: Basic Books, 2002)
Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests: The Political Arguments for Capitalism before its Triumph (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977)
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (any edition, as long as it is true to original 1719)
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (Modern Library edition preferred)
Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001)
Karl Marx, Capital (Penguin edition preferred)
Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2002)
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)
Jules Verne, Mysterious Island (Any edition true to original
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001, orig. 1944)
Gilbert Rist, The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith (London: Zed Books, 1997), translated by Patrick Camiller.
Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the semester if you have any individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office (www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/). The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.
In writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use words, phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else’s work. Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting is PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. Please review the University’s honesty policy at www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/.
Week-by-week assignments: I can be flexible about some of the specific readings for individual weeks. If you are interested in molding this course to your particular specialization (another continent, for example), I can help you design a reading list that would complement the readings suggested below.
Tuesday, Aug. 28: Introduction
Tues., Sept. 4:: A cultural history of capitalism, some ideas from "before"
Martha C. Howell, Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2010). Read Introduction and afterward carefully, choose one or two chapters/case studies to read carefully.
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American Thought, 1550-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), read entire
There are MANY works on the early modern period that would work to begin our conversation. If you have a favorite you would like to propose please do so.
I. Building Blocks of Liberal Capitalist Culture: (17C)
Tues., Sept. 11: Property and Improvement in the Anglo-American Tradition
John Locke, “On Property,” in Two Treatises on Government
On line: http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtr05.htm
William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, (NY: Hill and Wang, 1983), especially chapters 2, “Landscape and Patchwork,” 19-33; 4, “Bounding the Land,” 54-81; and 8, “That Wilderness Should Turn a Mart,” 159-170.
Uday Singh Mehta, “Strategies: Liberal Conventions and Imperial Exclusions” in Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), pp. 46-76
Tues., Sept. 18: The Slave Trade, The Atlantic, The View from Nantes
Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade (NY: Basic Books, 2002) ENTIRE
Richard Drayton, “The Collaboration of Labor: Slaves, Empires, and Globalizations in the Atlantic World, ca. 1600-1850,” in Globalization in World History, Ed. A.G. Hopkins (NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 2002), pp. 99-115.
Choose one from the following list: (all on reserve)
Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (NY: Penguin Books, 1985)
Charlotte Sussman, Consuming Anxieties: Consumer Protest, Gender, and British Slavery, 1713-1833 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), chapter 4, “Women and the Politics of Sugar, 1792.”
Ian Baucom, Specters of the Atlantic: finance capital, slavery, and the philosophy of history (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005)
Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (NY: Viking, 2007)
There are many books that have been written in Atlantic history, Latin American History, African History, Imperial History, and world history (many using "new biography") that treat the slave trade, piracy, and individual commodities. You are welcome to choose one of these instead.
II. Heroes and Narratives of Doux (Gentle) Commerce (18C)
Tues., Sept. 25: Heroes and Heroines
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (orig. 1719)
Daniel Defoe, "The Complete English Tradesman," excerpts (1727)
We'll divide up the following, with everyone reading one:
Ian Watt, “Robinson Crusoe as Myth,” from Essays in Criticism: A Quarterly Journal of Literary Criticism (Aril 1951): 95-119; reprinted and revised in Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism (A Norton Critical Edition) (NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 1994), pp. 288-305.
Martin Green, Dreams of Adventure, Deeds of Empire (NY: Basic Books, Inc., 1979), Chapter 1, “Modern Empire, Caste, and Adventure,” pp. 3-35.
Joyce Appleby, “New Cultural heroes in the early national period,” in Haskell and Teichgraeber, The Culture of the Market (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 163-188.
Nancy Armstrong, Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel (Oxford University Press, 1987), Chapter 2, “The Rise of the Domestic Woman,” pp. 59-95; 269-273.
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: women’s lives in Georgian England (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), Chapter 4, “Prudent Economy,” pp. 127-160 (+ footnotes for these pages).
There are MANY books that treat this subject in other national contexts, defining and explaining the emergence of other "capitalist characters." You are welcome to suggest alternatives if they are more suitable to your specialty.
Tues., Oct. 2: Arguments for Capitalism before its Triumph (and more heroes)
Doux Commerce
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776): Book I, chapter 2; chapter 5; chapter 8; conclusion, chapter 11; Book II, Chapter III; Book III, entire.
Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977) or "Rival Views of Market Society," in Rival Views of Markety Society and Other Recent Essays (orig., 1986, republished, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992): pp. 105-141.
You can also consult Montesquieu, the chapters related to “On Commerce,” in Spirit of the Laws, which is available on line.
Not so Doux Commerce
Anoush Terjanian, Commerce and its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) --this is due out in late September; I will have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it. She is also sending me an article that I will add to our syllabus. She takes on Hirschman's characterization of Commerce as "doux" in the 18C by analyzing the following long-neglected text that in its time it was more widely read than Adam Smith.
Abbé Raynal, A philosophical and political history of the settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. (various editions from 1770s)
Full text is available on line, see UF libraries to find "ebook".
OR--I have a pdf of the following excerpt:
Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal, "A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies," excerpts from Commerce, Culture and Liberty: Readings on Capitalism before Adam Smith, edited by Henry C. Clark (Indianapolis: The Liberty Fund, 2003): 610-623.
START READING GASKELL’S NORTH AND SOUTH—IT’S LONG!!!
Tues., Oct. 9: Some Cultural and Intellectual Historians on this juncture
Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), entire.
Margot Finn, chapters 1, “Fictions of debt and credit, 1740-1914,” 25-63; and 6, ‘From courts of conscience to county courts: small-claims litigation in the nineteenth century,” 236-277, and conclusion, 317-327, The Character of Credit: Personal Debt in English Culture, 1740-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Friday, October 12: Paper 1 Due
IV. Capitalism Triumphant
Tues., Oct. 16: Middle Class Subjects
Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
Tues., Oct. 23: Narratives of Capitalism, the Industrial City, the working class subject, slavery?
Marx, Capital, Part III, Chapter 10, “The Working Day; Part VIII, “So-called Primitive Accumulation.”
Friedrich Engels, Condition of the English Working Class, excerpts of your choice from http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/
Catherine Gallagher, The Industrial Reformation of Fiction: Social Discourse and Narrative Form, 1832-1867, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), chapter on North and South and Gaskell.
Start reading Mysterious Island—it’s long!
Tues., Oct. 30: Modern Capitalist Subjectivity: Industrialization and Commodification
Marx, Capital, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 4. “The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret,”
Walter Benjamin, Arcades Project. Everyone should read: “Paris Capital of the 19th Century.” We will divide up the convolutes between us.
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: UC Press, 1977)
Additional readings for those interested: Simmel, Durkheim, Weber.
Tues., Nov. 6: More heroes (the can-do engineer!), spectacles, and other celebrations of the age of capital
Jules Verne, Mysterious Island (A Robinsonade for imperial Europe)
Choose either Great Exhibitions or Department Stores, and read one or two chaptesr or articles.
Great Exhibitions:
1851: Paul Young, Globalization and the Great Exhibition: The Victorian New World Order (NY, London: Palgrave, 2009)
1889: Debora L. Silverman, "The Crisis of Bourgeois Individualism," Oppositions 1977, vol. 8, p.70-91 (on Exhibition of 1889)
1900: Rosalind Williams, Dream Worlds: Mass Consumption in Late Nineteenth-Century France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), chapter 3, “Dream World of Mass Consumption,” pp. 58-106. (on the Paris Exhibition of 1900)
1900: Chapter 1 in Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), on 1900 Exhibition.
Department store:
Michael B. Miller, The Bon Marché: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869-1920 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), chapter V, “Selling Consumption,” pp. 165-189.
There is a vast, interesting literature on world fairs and also on department stores. If you would like to choose a book or article more suited to your own research interests I can help you identify one.
Friday, Nov. 9: Paper 2 due.
4) The Crisis and Rebirth of Capitalism (20C)
Tues., Nov. 13: Some postwar voices
For students unfamiliar with 20C European History, read the following for a good general overview of the crisis of capitalism, esp. chapter 4:
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century, chapters 4, “The Crisis of Capitalism”, 104-137; 6, “Blueprints for the Golden Age,” 182-211; chapter 9, “Democracy Transformed: Western Europe, 1950-75,” 286-326; chapter 10, “The Social Contract in Crisis,” 327-360.
All read:
Capitalism and the Rise of Fascism:
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001, orig. 1944)
Capitalism as the antidote to totalitarianism:
Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944) chapter 1, “The Abandoned Road,” pp. 10-23; and chapter 7, Economic Control and Totalitarianism,” pp. 88-100.
T.H. Marshall, “Citizenship and Social Class,” originally published in Class, Citizenship, and Social Class (NY: Doubleday, 1963). (pdf available)
Students particularly interested in France or Germany may replace T.H. Marshall with the following, all of which are on reserve: