Spring 2008

T C 357 • Economic Thought and Political Controversy: Then and Now-W

Course Description

This is a class about the relationship between classical economic thought and political controversy. We will pick a small number of major texts, read them carefully, and try to relate them to the issues of their own time and of ours. Included on the syllabus will be a handful of current policy papers and also of books related to current issues, to be read as counterpoints to the classical texts.

Texts

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (unabridged)
David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
Karl Marx, "The Communist Manifesto"
Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash
Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents
Michael A. Bernstein, A Perilous Progress: Economists and Public Purpose in Twentieth Century America
Erik Reinert, "A Morgenthau Plan for Mongolia," online at www.othercanon.org
James Galbraith, "The Worldly Philosophers and the War Economy" (online at Social Research) and The Great Crash
Thomas Frank, One Market Under God

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