This course is designed to introduce students to the history 
of American business and free enterprise. It covers the period 
from the time of the first settlements in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries through the first and second industrial
revolutions of the nineteenth century and early twentieth
century, and then on to revolutions in business that have 
taken place in the last century. While primarily focused on the 
United States, the course will frame domestic developments 
within a larger, global framework.
 
A principal objective of the course is to teach students to 
think critically for themselves about the relationships between 
the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past 
that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, 
and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities 
of change. The course is particularly geared to prepare students
contemplating a career in business as well as allied fields –
consulting, corporate law, marketing, advertising, finance, 
and public policy – to appreciate the rich history of American
business in this country.

Students will be expected to: 

1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources 
critically, many drawn from Blaszczyk and Scranton, Major 
Problems in American Business History.

2. develop skills in critical thinking, including the ability 
to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and 
the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments 
effectively.

3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and 
essays using processes that include discovering ideas and 
evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and 
polishing the finished papers.

4.  apply business history to current debates over the future
direction of American business, innovation, business 
regulation, and American competitiveness in the global economy.

This course is divided into five sections:

Section One examines the changing nature of business and free
enterprise in the colonial era through the early nineteenth
century, with a focus on how patterns of immigration, the 
legal structure (particular with the ratification of the 
Constitution), and the adoption of the corporate form fostered 
business in the United States 

Section Two surveys the first and second industrial revolutions
of the nineteenth century, ranging from the first stirring of
technological innovation in the northeast to the explosive 
growth of technical innovation that turned the United States 
into the largest economy in the world by the 1870s.

Section Three reviews at some of the problems that business 
faced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, from 
ruinous competition to monopolistic practices to growing calls 
for reform.  This section of the course also examines labor 
relations and the rise of significant, national regulations 
governing business.

Section Four looks at the apotheosis of business in the 1920s,
its tumultuous relationship to the federal government during 
the New Deal, and its redemption during World War II, when it 
helped turn the United States into the most powerful military 
power on the planet.

Section Five contemplates the profound transformations in
business in the postwar era.  Topics covered include postwar
prosperity, overseas markets during the Cold War,
deindustrialization, the rise of the service economy, and what 
is often called the third industrial revolution: the rise of
computing and other high-tech industries.