History 291--History of American Enterprise
Fall 2007

Meets MW, 11:10 AM-12:00 Noon, 101 Buttrick Hall
Professor David L. Carlton; for other contact information, click here.

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Section Leaders Buttrick Carrell Office HoursMailboxPhone (H)
Jon Hansen 3-25

Tuesday, 1:00-2:00 PM;
Thursday, 11:00 AM-12 Noon;
and by appointment

 History Dept. Office, Benson Hall N.A.
Kurt Johnson 4-15 Wednesday, 1:00-2:30 PM History Dept. Office, Benson Hall N.A.

Discussion Section Schedule

Section No.TimeLocationLeader
1Friday 11:10 AM-12:00 Noon Stevenson 1310 Hansen
2 Friday 1:10-2:00 PM Buttrick 308 Johnson
3 Thursday 4:10-5:00 PM Buttrick 304 Hansen
4Friday 2:10-3:00 PM Buttrick 304 [NEW ROOM!!] Hansen
5Friday 11:10 AM-12:00 Noon Stevenson 1313 [NEW ROOM!!] Johnson
6 Thursday 4:10-5:00 PMButtrick 112Johnson

Schedule of Classes and Assignments

Week
Topic
Readings

Aug. 29--FIRST CLASS

 

1

The Origins of American Business

Sep. 3--Prologue: The European Origins of American Business

Sep. 5--The First American Business Enterprise–The Virginia Company

 Blaszczyk and Scranton, Chs. 1 and 2;
Richard Hakluyt the Younger, Discourse Concerning Western Planting [handout];
Sigmund Diamond, "From Organization to Society: Virginia in the Seventeenth Century" The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 63, No. 5. (Mar., 1958), pp. 457-475.
2
 Colonial Business and the Coming of the Revolution

Sep. 10--America's First Business–Agriculture

Sep. 12--Colonial Commerce and Mercantilism

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 3;
The Navigation Acts [handout]

3

A New Nation and a New Business Environment

Sep. 17--The Revolution and Its Fruits

Sep. 19--Defining American Business Culture I : The Constitution and the Federalists

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 4;
Alexander Hamilton, Report on Public Credit (On the Web)

4

The Westward Explosion

Sep. 24--Defining American Business Culture II: The Federalists and the Jeffersonian Revolution

Sep. 26--The Westward Explosion

Dalzell, Chaps. 1-4

5

The Transportation Revolution

Oct. 1--The Commercial West

Oct. 3--The Transportation/Communications Revolution

DALZELL PAPER DUE IN DISCUSSION SECTIONS

Dalzell, Chaps. 5-6 and Epilogue;
Jesup Scott, "The Western Railroad Movement" Hunt's Merchants' Magazine 12 (1845): 323-330 (E-Reserve);
Anon., "Commercial Delusions--Speculations" The American Review 2 (1845): 345-357 (E-Reserve)

6

The Making of Industrial America

Oct. 8--The Transportation/Communications Revolution (Cont'd)

Oct. 10--MIDTERM EXAM

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 6;
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XIX (1780)(E-Reserve);
William D. Kelley, "Introduction," in Speeches, Addresses, and Letters on Industrial and Financial Questions (Philadelphia: H. C. Baird, 1872), v-xx (E-Reserve);
Joseph Whitworth, "Special Report"(1854)(E-Reserve).

7

The Role of Government--Southern Business

Oct. 15--The Industrial Revolution

Oct. 17--Business Culture in the Old South

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 5:
Mathew Carey, "Letters to Bank Directors, March 22, May 14, 1816," in Herman E. Krooss, ed., Documentary History of Banking and Currency in the United States, Vol. 1: 477-480 (E-Reserve);
David L. Carlton, "Antebellum Southern Urbanization," in David L. Carlton and Peter A. Coclanis, The South, the Nation, and the World (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003), 35-48 (E-Reserve).


Oct. 22-23--FALL BREAK
8

The Rise of Big Business: I

Oct. 24--The Rise of Big Business I--The Railroads

 
9

The Rise of Big Business: II

Oct. 29--The Rise of Big Business II--The National Market and a New Business Environment

Oct. 31--The Rise of Big Business III--New Business Strategies

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 7;
begin Gain
10

A New Inequality

Nov. 5--Labor in the Age of Big Business

Nov. 7--Southern Business and Southern Poverty After the Civil War

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 9;
finish Gain

11

Coping With Big Business--the Government Response

Nov. 12--New Issues for Government

Nov. 14--Progressivism and the Regulatory State

GAIN PAPER DUE IN DISCUSSION SECTIONS

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Ch. 8;
Charles Francis Adams, "The Government and Railroad Corporations," North American Review (January 1871): 31-61 (on the Web)


Week of Nov. 19--THANKSGIVING BREAK
12

Consumerism and Collapse

Nov. 26--The Marketing Revolution

Nov. 28--The Great Depression and the Crisis of the CorporateOrder

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Chs.10-11; Gross, Pop!

13

The Postwar Years

Dec. 3--From Crisis to Triumph: The New Deal to World War II

Dec. 5--The Apogee of American Corporate Enterprise–The Postwar Years, 1945-1973

POP! PAPER DUE IN DISCUSSION SECTIONS

Blaszczyk and Scranton, Chs. 12-15

14

American Business Triumphant?

Dec. 10--The Second Crisis of the Corporate Economy–The 1970s and 1980s

Dec.12– LAST CLASS--The New New Business Order?

NO DISCUSSION SECTIONS THIS WEEK!
 

Dec. 18(Tuesday)--PRIMARY FINAL EXAMINATION, 9:00 AM, Buttrick 101

Dec. 21 (Friday)--ALTERNATE FINAL EXAMINATION, NOON, Buttrick 101

Nuts 'n'Bolts:

One midterm examination will be given in this course; the grade will count 20 per cent of the final grade. The final examination will count 30 per cent of the final grade. Participation in discussion sections will count for 20 per cent of the final grade; your section leaders will determine how that grading will be handled.

In addition, each student will complete two short papers (4-6 pp. each; 15 per cent each of final grade). In the course of the semester you will receive three assignments; each will consist of a question dealing with one of the following texts: Dalzell, Enterprising Elite; Powers, Gain; and Gross, Pop! You may choose two of the three; if you write all three, I will drop the lowest grade of the three. These assignments are due as indicated on the schedule above, and will be keyed to weekly discussions.

Papers will be due at the beginning of the discussion section for which the student is registered on the week due. Except in clear medical or family emergencies, extensions will be granted only if applied for at least one day in advance; past due short papers will lose a full Vanderbilt grade point for each day overdue.

The attention of the student is called to Chapter 2 of the Vanderbilt University Student Handbook, dealing with the honor system. Note in particular that it is the student's responsibility to understand the principles of intellectual honesty as they apply to this course (to say nothing of how they apply to life in general). Feel free to consult the instructor if issues of genuine moral ambiguity arise.


Assigned Books:

Regina Lee Blaszczyk and Philip B. Scranton, eds., Major Problems in American Business History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006).
Robert F. Dalzell, Jr., Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994).
Richard Powers, Gain: A Novel (New York: Picador USA, 1998).
Daniel Gross, Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy New York, Harper/Collins, 2007).

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Updated December 13, 2007

Questions? Comments? Contact david.l.carlton@vanderbilt.edu.