HIST 202: Economic Thought from Adam Smith to Karl Marx

Instructor: D’Maris Coffman

This course investigates the birth of modern economic thought in its historical context. Students will read Adam Smith, David Hume, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx. Their theories about economic growth, markets, international trade, labor, population and the proper role of government are still debated today. This seminar focuses on these seven eighteenth and nineteenth-century political economists and moral philosophers. To set the stage for the development of their ideas we will briefly cover the seventeenth-century practitioners of political arithmetic (William Petty and Gregory King) and the eighteenth-century French physiocrats (Turgot and Quesnay).

Although there are no formal pre-requisites, some familiarity with European history would be helpful. Students will be expected to give at least one oral presentation on a primary text and to write a substantial term paper. History, economics, political science, sociology and finance majors should find this course especially useful.