After completing the course students are able to:

This course aims to give students an overview of long-term developments in the world economy and teach them how the theoretical insights of social scientists help us to understand world history better. The main emphasis lies not so much on the chronology of events, but on understanding the two main problems of social and economic history: what are the origins and drivers of economic growth, and why does that process result in wide disparities in wealth?

Additionally, this course intends to teach students to independently carry out a research project. Students will acquire general skills (e.g. developing a research project) as well as skills specific to social and economic historians (e.g. source criticism, working with data and theory). It prepares them for working at the MA level.

Format
Class meets twice a week in two-hour sessions. During the first part of the course, we will analyze the globalizing world from its nineteenth-century roots until today, using Frieden’s already classic textbook Global Capitalism. Research articles will be used to deepen our insight into particular events and to familiarize ourselves with techniques and methods. The second part of the course will build on the latter. Students will set up and conduct their own research project. They will learn how to develop their research question, how to identify and apply the relevant theory, and how to locate and use the necessary empirical data. Besides close supervision, feedback by fellow students is a key component of this part of the course.