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21H.982

Technology and the Global Economy, 1000-2000

3-0-9 units · Graduate

Examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery, the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems, global population movements; the industrial revolution, the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; resources and development; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.

Fall 2016

Topics

  • Deep History and Big Data: Understanding Long-term Global Processes
  • Energy, the Standard of Living, and Measuring Economic Growth
  • The Tech Boom of the Middle Ages
  • Was Malthus Right?—Plague and the Post-Plague Economy
  • The Global Crisis of the 17 th Century
  • Consumers Everywhere
  • The Industrial Revolution
  • Empire Building: East and West
  • Divergence: When and Why?
  • Class presentations of individual final projects

Readings

Prerequisites & course information

Subject meets with 21H.383[J] , STS.061[J] Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Sources