HISTORY 103
Spring 2004
Mr. Abrams Thurs. 2-4, Rm: 175 Dwinelle

SYLLABUS
"The business of America is business," Calvin Coolidge is supposed to have remarked, in his crass and laconic way. Probably most American academicians--especially those who labor in the humanities and give themselves to the life of the mind and aesthetic appreciation--have at some time or other snickered in disapproval. But they also probably acknowledge that it would be hard to dispute what for them may seem to be its drab truth. In their study of American life, however, they have on the whole chosen simply to ignore it. Witness, for example, how the UCB history department regularly offers not a single undergraduate course on the age of the industrial revolution in the U.S., while business history in general has been left to business schools and some Big 10 universities.

This seminar is predicated on the proposition that if business has indeed been a preoccupying activity for most Americans throughout most of American history, it may be sensible to study it. It will proceed, moreover, on the premise that modern capitalism, and in particular the American socio-economic system of relatively autonomous, growth-oriented private business venturing, could not have materialized except for the ascendancy in the 16th Century in especially northwestern Europe of a new world view, a new rationale that at least conceded, even if only implicitly at first, the possibility, the legitimacy, perhaps even the desirability of secular, material progress. That legitimacy derived particularly from Protestantism's implicit, albeit unintended, sanctioning of private materialistic ambition. These highflying generalizations are code for the successful challenge in especially England and the Low Countries of Calvinistic Protestantism to the system of authority and social order embodied in traditional Roman Catholicism. Not that Protestantism underwrote capitalism. Not a bit of it. Rather, some of our reading may suggest how remarkably perverse the march of history can be, how the best laid dicta of righteous people gang aft agley, and how great changes grow not from great events but from the wanton interaction of small ingredients thrust into an already vigorous culture.

Having ruminated on the significance of the cultural variable in the history of economic growth, we will proceed to examine the possibility that variations in subcultures within the same large social environment may have acted to produce different "success" ratios among various American ethnic groups. That may lead us, moreover, to inquire into changing definitions of "success" in America. We may also inquire as to whether, even given the "proper" cultural mix, it would have all been in vain if not for a legal and political environment that changed over time to favor different growth-stimulating activities. To bring things up to date, we shall inquire into the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the character of Work, on the structure of business, on U.S. foreign relations, on the effects of "globalization," and on the military in American life.

Since this is a seminar, its effectiveness depends on regular ATTENDANCE, and INPUT, from each member. Absences and failure to contribute meaningfully to class discussions on the assigned readings will be duly noted. Apart from regular participation in seminar discussion each week, course requirements include TWO papers. Each paper (12-20 pages, 12-point type, double-spaced, normal margins) will be in the nature of a HISTORIOGRAPHICAL or REVIEW ESSAY. The subject of each essay will be selected from among the subjects stipulated in the weekly syllabus. Each essay will endeavor to present a more comprehensive assessment of the literature on the subject than the assigned and suggested readings permit within the time constraints of weekly assignments. You must get my approval for each topic you choose before you begin. The FIRST PAPER will be DUE no later than 4 p.m., Monday, 15 March. The SECOND PAPER will be DUE no later than 4 p.m. Tuesday, 18 May.

READINGS: Although most of the readings will be in a Reader (available at Copy Central, on Bancroft Way), in some cases, I am asking you to read more extensively in a few books. The books will be on reserve in Moffit, but you may want to buy the following:
Glenn Porter, The Rise of Big Business
Thomas Kessner, The Golden Door -
-- Or: Ivan Light, Ethnic Enterprise in America
Michael Pertschuk, Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement
J. Willard Hurst, Law and the Conditions of Freedom; OR, J. Willard Hurst, Law & Markets.

CLASS PROCEDURE:
A different member of the seminar will "keynote" the discussion each week with a 10 minute commentary on the assignment. The commentary will not be a summary of the assigned book(s); it will be presumed that each member will have read the works him/herself. Rather the commentary should be directed at piquing our interest with regard to some particular feature of the readings; or at raising some keen questions; or at putting the readings in some historical or historiographical context.

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS:
Thurs. Jan.22: Organizational Meeting

I. Thurs. Jan. 29 -- Preparation of the Culture
Read:
Reader: R. H. Tawney, Religion & the Rise of Capitalism, Prefaces, and chs. 2, 4, 5.
Reader: Christine Heyrman, Commerce and Culture, Introduction, and pp.404-414.

Suggested:
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, Part II: "Rise & Fall of Market Economy."
T. C. Cochran, The Inner Revolution, esp. chs. 4, 5.
Elisha P. Douglass, The Coming of Age of American Business
David S. Landes, ed., The Rise of Capitalism, esp. Landes' Intro.; Christopher Hill, "Protestantism and the Rise of Capitalism," and Neil McKendrick, "Josiah Wedgwood and Factory Discipline"

II. Thurs., Feb. 5 The First Industrial Revolution
Read:
Reader: Thos. McCraw, ed., Creating Modern Capitalism, Ch.2, and ch. 9 up to the section titled "The Evolution of Big Business".
Reader: Thomas C. Cochran, Frontiers of Change, chs. 1-2

Suggested:
Stuart Bruchey, The Roots of American Economic Growth, esp. Ch.3.
Wm. Miller, ed., Men in Business, esp chs. by Sawyer and Lamb

III. Thurs, Feb.12 -- Business and American Idealism
Read:
Reader: Stuart Bruchey, Enterprise, pp.193-198.
Reader: David Brion Davis, "Stress-Seeking and the Self-Made Man in American Literature," in Samuel Z. Klausner, ed., Why Man Takes Chances
Reader: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vintage Edition (P.Bradley, ed.), vol.2: Bk.I, ch.11; Bk II, chs. 2, 5, 7, 8, 18-20; Bk.III, ch.5. [35 pgs. in all.]

Suggested:
L. Baritz, The Good Life: The Meaning of Success for the American Middle Class;
John G. Cawelti, Apostles of the Self-Made Man.
Richard Weiss, The American Myth of Success
Sigmund Diamond, The Reputation of the American Businessman
E. C. Kirkland, Dream and Thought in the Business Community
Irvin Wyllie, The Self-Made Man in America

IV. Thurs., February 19 - The Role of Law
Read:
James Willard Hurst, Law and the Conditions of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century United States, esp. ch. 1.
OR: Hurst, Law and Markets., complete

Suggested:
Lawrence Friedman, Contract Law in America
Morton Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law (2 vols.)
G. Edward White, Tort Law in America: An Intellectual History
______________, "The Intellectual Origins of Torts in America," Yale Law Journal, 86 (1977) 671.
Gary T. Schwartz, "Tort Law and the Economy in 19th Century America: A Reinterpretation," Yale Law Journal, 90 (July 1981) 1717.

V. Thurs., Feb. 26 -- Transformation of Private Business Enterprise
Read:
Glenn Porter, The Rise of Big Business, complete.
Reader: A.D.Chandler, "Introduction to The Visible Hand," in T.K.McCraw, ed., The Essential Alfred Chandler: Essays Toward a Historical Theory of Big Business (1988).
Reader: McCraw, Creating Modern Capitalism, the remainder of ch.9.

Suggested:
A. D. Chandler & Herman Daems, eds., Managerial Hierarchies: Comparative Perspectives on the Rise of the Modern Industrial Enterprise, includes chs. on Britain (Hannah), Germany (Kocka), France (Levy-Leboyer), and the U.S. (Keller). Read esp. the chapter by Keller.
J. R. Munkirs, The Transformation of American Capitalism, ch.2.
A. D. Chandler, Scale & Scope
Glenn Porter & Harold Livesay, Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth-Century Manufacturing.
Stuart Bruchey, Growth of the Modern American Economy, ch.4.

VI. Thurs., Mar. 4 - The Symbiotic Relationship: Government & Business
Read:
Reader: Thos. McCraw, "The Public & Private Spheres in Historical Perspective," in H. Brooks, L. Liebman, & C. Schelling, eds., Public-Private Partnership: New Opportunities for Meeting Social Needs.
Reader: Stuart Bruchey, Enterprise, pp.198-222.
Reader: A.D.Chandler, "Government Versus Business: An American Phenomenon," from J.T.Dunlop, ed., Business and Public Policy (1980), pp.1-11.
Reader: R.M.Abrams, "Business & Government," in Green, ed., Encyclopedia of American Political History

Suggested:
Thos. McCraw, ed., Regulation in Perspective, esp. M. Keller, "The Pluralist State: American Economic Regulation in Comparative Perspective."
Robert Lively, "The American System," Business History Review, XXIX (1955).
Morton Keller, Affairs of State; and The Regulatory State.

VII. Mar. 11 NO MEETING: WORK ON PAPERS

FIRST PAPER DUE MONDAY, MARCH 15

VIII. Thurs., March 18 The Business of Slavery
Read:
Reader: Excerpts from Harold Woodman, ed., Slavery & the Southern Economy (1966)
Reader: Excerpt from Gavin Wright, Old South, New South (1986)
Reader: Excerpt from Elizabeth Fox-Genovese & Eugene Genovese, Fruits of Merchant Capital (1983)

Suggested:
Robert Fogel & Stanley Engerman, Time on the Cross (1974)
Paul David, et al., Reckoning With Slavery (1976)

SPRING BREAK MARCH 20 MARCH 28

IX. Thurs, April 1: The Ethnic Dimension
Read:
Thomas Kessner, The Golden Door; complete; and/or
Ivan Light, Ethnic Enterprise in America, complete.

Suggested:
N. Glazer, "The Missing Bootstrap," Saturday Review, 28Aug 69.
Moses Rischin, The American Gospel of Success, Intro.
R. Waldinger, H. Aldrich, & Robin Ward, Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies, esp. ch.2.
Olivier Zunz, The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development, and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880-1920 (1982).
John Sibley Butler, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics
Stanley Lieberson, A Piece of the Pie: Black White Immigrants Since 1880
John Bodnar, Steeltown: Immigration and Industrialization, 1870-1940 [re Slavic workers in a company town]

X. Thurs., April 8 - The Technological Imperative
Read:
Reader: John F. Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican Values in America, 1776-1900, ch.1
Reader: David A. Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production 1800-1932, "Introduction."
Reader: David F. Noble, America By Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism, chapter 10.

Suggested:
David F. Noble, Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation.
Walter A. McDougall, "...the Heavens and the Earth": A Political History of the Space Age.

XI. Thurs, April 15 - Industrialization & The Transformation of Work
Read:
Reader: David Brody, In Labor's Cause, chs.1-2
Reader: Daniel T.Rodgers, The Work Ethic in Industrial America, "Intro." and ch. 1.
Reader: David Montgomery, Workers' Control in America, Introduction, and ch.1.
Reader: Daniel Nelson, Managers and Workers: Origins of the New Factory system in the United States, 1880-1920, . chs. 2-3

Suggested:
Harvey Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital.
Richard Edwards, Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the
Twentieth Century.
David Montgomery, The Fall of the House of Labor
Christopher L. Tomlins: The State and the Unions: Labor Relations, Law, and the Organized Labor Movement in America, 1880-1960
Herbert Gutman, Work, Culture & Society.
David Montgomery, Workers' Control in America.

XII. Thurs., April 22 The Politics of Deregulation
Read:
Michael Pertschuk, Revolt Against Regulation: The Rise and Pause of the Consumer Movement, complete.
Reader: Steven Rosen, ed., Testing the Theory of the Military-Industrial Complex

Suggested:
Martha Derthick & Paul J. Quirk, The Politics of Deregulation (1985), at least first couple of chapters.
Susan J. Tolchin & Martin Tolchin, Dismantling America: The Rush to Deregulate (1983), passim.
Steve Fraser & Gary Gerstle, eds., The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980 (1989), relevant chapters.
James Q. Wilson, ed., The Politics of Regulation (1980), introduction concluding chapter.
Barry M. Mitnick, The Political Economy of Regulation: Creating, Designing, and Removing Regulatory Forms (1980)
Phillip I. Blumberg, The Megacorporation in American Society: The Scope of Corporate Power, complete.
Christopher D. Stone, Where the Law Ends: The Social Control of Corporate Behavior, complete.

XIII Thurs., April 29: NO MEETING WORK ON PAPERS

XIV. Thurs., May 6- Roundup
Read:
Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (optional)

Final Paper Due No Later Than TUESday, May 18, 4 pm.