Frank Roosevelt

Required books (available in the SLC Bookstore):

Sean Masaki Flynn, Economics for Dummies 

Samuel Bowles, Richard Edwards, and Frank Roosevelt, Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, and Change (3rd edition)

George Stigler, ed., Selections from Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

Eugene Kamenka, ed., The Portable Karl Marx

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

E. K. Hunt, Property and Prophets (updated 7th edition)

Gordon Harvey, Writing with Sources: A Guide for Students

Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual

COURSE OUTLINE: FIRST SEMESTER

Flynn, Sean M., Economics for Dummies, (hereafter "Flynn"), Introduction (pp. 1-6) and browse book...
Hayes, Christopher, "Hip Heterodoxy," The Nation, June 11, 2007 (on reserve and available at http://www.thenation.com/doc20070611/hayes)
Cohen, Patricia, "In Economics Departments, a growing Will to Debate Fundamental Assumptions," The New York Times, July 11, 2007, p. B6 (on reserve and available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/education/11economics.html

B.  Before capitalism: feudal economy and society  (Sept. 14th-18th)

Power, Eileen, Medieval People, Ch. II, pp. 18-26  (on reserve)
Roosevelt, F., graphic:  “Feudal Agrarian Structure”  (Course Reader)
Film:  “The Tree of Wooden Clogs” (Italian, Ermanno Olmi, 1978)
Roosevelt, F., notes on “The Tree of Wooden Clogs”  (Course Reader)
Roosevelt, F., “Comparison of Feudalism and Capitalism”  (Course Reader)
Hoge, Warren, 2 articles on contemporary feudalism in Scotland, The New York Times, Feb. 9, 1999, and Jan. 4, 2002  (Course Reader)

   First writing assignment  (4-5 pages, typed, double-spaced, due Tuesday, Sept. 18th):

EITHER:  Imagine that you are “Bodo” or “Ermentrude” (see Eileen Power, Medieval People) — or one of the characters in “The Tree of Wooden Clogs” — and that you have somehow been transported to your own hometown. Write an essay describing and reflecting on your experiences over a period of a few days. (Assume that you are a literate individual, and please focus more on economic/social institutions and relationships than on technology.)

OR:  Compare and contrast the feudal way of life and social structure with those of the U.S. or a country in which you have lived.

C.  The transition from feudalism to capitalism  (Sept. 21st-25th)

Flynn, Ch. 1, pp. 10-12
Bowles, Edwards, Roosevelt, Understanding Capitalism (hereafter “BER”), Ch. 1
Hunt, E. K., Property and Prophets, Chs. 1, 2, and 3
Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations, Book III, Ch. IV, "How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country"  (Course Reader)
Marx, Karl, excerpts on "primitive accumulation" from Capital, Vol. I, Chs. 26, 27, 31, 32, and 33 in Kamenka,   ed., The Portable Karl Marx, pp. 461-503
Roosevelt, F., “Smith and Marx on the transition from feudalism to capitalism” (Course Reader)

Flynn, p. 317
BER, Ch. 4, pp. 73-76
E. K. Hunt, Property and Prophets, Ch. 4
Film: “Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations” (Liberty Fund)
Roosevelt, F., “Questions for Smith, Marx and Keynes”  (Course Reader)
Roosevelt, F., “Adam Smith's Assumptions”  (Course Reader)
Stigler, ed., Selections from The Wealth of Nations, entire (except pp. 72-80)
Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Ch. VIII, “Of the Wages of Labour”  (Course Reader)
Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Ch. II, on the “invisible hand”  (Course Reader)
Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Ch. I, on the harmful effects of the division of labor ( Course Reader)
Friedman, Milton, Capitalism and Freedom, Introduction
Friedman, Milton, video: “Free to Choose: The Power of the Market”
Will, George, “Today’s Ties to Adam Smith,” The Washington Post, March 22, 1981 (Course Reader)

1st quiz

(a)  Marx as humanist
Roosevelt, F., “Marx as a Moral Thinker”  (Course Reader)
Kamenka, ed., The Portable Karl Marx, “Editor’s Note,” pp. 125-129
“Alienated Labor” in Kamenka, ed., The Portable Karl Marx, pp. 131-46
“Private Property and Communism” in Kamenka, pp. 146-52

(b)  Marx as social-scientific historian: the materialist conception of history
Flynn, pp. 318--319
BER, Ch. 4, pp. 76-78
Hunt, E. K., Property and Prophets, Ch. 6
“Theses on Feuerbach” in Kamenka, pp. 155-58, esp. No. VI on p. 157
“Preface” (1859) in Kamenka, pp. 158-161
Roosevelt graphic on “The Progress of Modes of Production”  (Course Reader)

(c)  Marx as political-economic analyst of capitalism
Hunt, E. K., Property and Prophets, Ch. 7
Kamenka, ed., The Portable Karl Marx, “Editor’s Note,” pp. 369-374
Capital, Vol. I, "Preface" and Ch. 1, excerpts in Kamenka, pp. 432-461
Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 6, last 3 paragraphs on spheres of circulation and production (Course Reader)
Sweezy, Paul, "Karl Marx and the Industrial Revolution" (photocopy of chapter in Robert Eagly, ed., Events, Ideology, and Economic Theory, Wayne State University Press, 1968, on reserve)

(d)  Marx as visionary-utopian proponent of communism
“The Communist Manifesto,” Parts I and II, in Kamenka, pp. 203-228
 “Critique of the Gotha Programme,” in Kamenka, pp. 533-555

2nd quiz

(e)  Marx – contemporary opinions
Cassidy, John, “The Return of Karl Marx,” The New Yorker, Oct. 20-27, 1997, pp. 248-259  (Course Reader)
Roosevelt, F., “Marx and Market Socialism,” Ch. 5 in Frank Roosevelt and David Belkin, eds., Why Market Socialism?  (on reserve)
The Economist, “Marx after communism,” December 19, 2002  (Course Reader)

EITHER:  Write an imaginary dialogue between Adam Smith and Karl Marx on capitalism.

OR:  Compare and contrast the views of Adam Smith and Karl Marx on capitalism.

E.  Contemporary approaches  (Nov.16th-Dec. 21st)

   (1)  Mainstream economics

   (2)  A feminist perspective

Power, Marilyn, “Social Provisioning as a Starting Point for Feminist Economics,” Feminist Economics, Nov. 2004, pp. 3-19  (on reserve)

   (3)  Radical economics: a three-dimensional approach

4th quiz

FINAL ASSIGNMENT OF FIRST SEMESTER  (3-5 pages, typed, double-spaced, due in last class):

Write a worksheet essay, to be attached to your student worksheet (the latter will be provided by the instructor), reviewing, summarizing and reflecting on what you have learned in this course this semester.

SECOND SEMESTER

Flynn, except for brief treatment on pp. 10-12, these topics are not covered
BER, Chs. 7 and 10

Flynn, Ch. 8
BER, Chs. 8 and 9

H.  Microeconomics: firms, consumers, and workers  (approx. 5 weeks)

(1)  The mainstream theory of the firm
Flynn, Chs. 10 and 11
Video: “The Firm:  How Can It Keep Costs Down?” (“Economics, U.S.A.” series)

5th quiz

(2)  The three-dimensional theory of the firm
BER, Chs. 11, 12 and 13
Video: “The Corporation” (by Achbar, Abbott, and Bakan


6th quiz

Third writing assignment  (5 pages, typed, double-spaced, due  ___):

Compare and contrast the mainstream and three-dimensional approaches to representing and analyzing the operations of a capitalist firm (corporation).

Do (3) and (4) here if time permits

(3)  “Imperfect competition”
Flynn, Chs. 12 and 13
Baran, Paul, “A Marxist View of Consumer Sovereignty” (on reserve)

(4)  The distribution of income and wealth
Friedman, Milton, Capitalism and Freedom, Ch. X
BER, Chs. 14 and 15

(spring break)

I.  Macroeconomics: employment, inflation, and growth  (approx. 7 weeks)

(1)  Mainstream macroeconomics
BER, Ch. 4, pp. 80-83
Keynes, J. M., Essays In Persuasion:  (all in Course Reader)
      --”A Short View of Russia” (pp. 297-311)
      --”The End of Laissez-Faire” (pp. 312-322)
      --”Am I a Liberal?” (pp. 323-338)
      --”Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” (pp. 358-373)
Keynes, J. M., “National Self-Sufficiency,” The Yale Review, Vol. 22, Summer 1933, pp. 755-769  (Course Reader)

Either:  Write an imaginary conversation between Keynes and Smith or between Keynes and Marx (or among all three).

Or:  Compare and contrast the ideas of John Maynard Keynes with those of Adam Smith and/or Karl Marx.

Video: “J. M. Keynes:  What Did We Learn from the Great Depression?” (“Economics, U.S.A.” series)
MH, Chs. 12 and 13


7th quiz

(2)  Three-dimensional macroeconomics
BER, Chs. 16, 17, and 18

8th quiz

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