U.S. Economic History: From the Civil War to World War I

Examination of the development of the U.S. economy from the Civil War to World War I. Focus on using economic models and numbers to understand what drove the evolution of the economy, why structural changes occurred, and why there was persistence. While the past persists for a long time in the form of people and institutions, there are periods of dramatic change brought on by technological change and by war. Study of the past, with its very different institutions, to inform the present. For example, the time period from the Civil War to World War I witnessed the rise of large corporations and complaints of monopoly power. There was anti-trust law. Investigation of degree to which collusion and monopoly was a problem, and whether anti-trust law solved the problem or if the regulators were captured. Consideration also that there was no Federal Reserve until December 1914, and examination of the problems created by not having a Federal Reserve.

P/NP or letter grading.