HIST 145 CM - Origins of Atlantic Capitalism

This weekly, reading-intensive seminar will introduce students to the long-running and highly contentious debates swirling around the emergence of the capitalist world economy in the early modern Atlantic world. Topics will include the transition from feudalism to capitalism; the contribution of new world slavery to European industrialization; the value of modernization, underdevelopment, and world-systems theories; the role of culture in securing European economic might; and the dynamics of relative Chinese decline and north Atlantic global ascent. Students will study key texts, critique them in short written assignments and seminar discussions, and at the end of term write a research paper on a topic of their choice.

Offered: Every other year

Credit: 1

Course Number: HIST145 CM