| Unit name | Capitalism (Level H Reflective History) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST30073 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Julio Decker |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The modern world rests on capitalism and the numerous ways in which took hold globally. As a mode of production and exchange, it informs market dynamics but also shapes social and gender relations as well as cultural and political systems. After falling out of fashion in the historical profession after the end of the cold war, historians have recently re-engaged with the history of capitalism, often in global perspectives. Combining classic and new approaches, this unit explores fundamental questions about the organization of modern societies. Does capitalism need free labour? How can we explain Western dominance and does it relate to the history of the production and consumption of global commodities? What are the dynamics of resistance, revolution, and reform regarding the economic, political, and social organization of societies? Does capitalism control the state or do national and international institutions shape markets and economies? What are capitalism’s problems, and can they be solved? The unit explores these questions in three dimensions: through historical actors, through historians’ writings, and through our own experience. In this Reflective Unit, we are challenged to analyse how contemporary contexts and personal views have and are shaping understandings of capitalism. You should be willing to share personal experience through formative writing exercises (in anonymous form), and be able to engage in a constructive manner with your peers’ experiences.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to demonstrate:
(1) an advanced understanding of the relationship between capitalism, markets, labour, and society;
(2) the ability to analyse and generalise how market forces, states, and individual agency have interacted in diverse geographical and temporal settings;
(3) the ability to select pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate more general issues and arguments drawing on the wide range of methodological approaches discussed in the unit;
(4) the ability to identify a particular academic interpretation, evaluate it critically, and form an individual viewpoint.
One 2 hour seminar per week.
2-hour exam (100%) [ILOs 1-5]
Appleby, Joyce, The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism (New York: Norton, 2010) Beckert, Sven, and Christine Desan, American Capitalism: New Histories (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018) Columbia Studies in the History of U.S. Capitalism Kocka, Jürgen, Capitalism: A Short History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016) Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (London: Gollancz, 1963) Zuboff, Shoshana, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power (London: Profile Books, 2018).
