Economic History

Welcome

Advising in Economic history (EcHist) within the history concentration prepares students to explore a variety of questions and approaches within economic history, the history of economic thought, the history of capitalism, financial history, labor history, business history, and the history of economic life.

Students may refer to the webpage on courses for courses in Economic History in the History Department and in other departments (concentrators may count one course that is neither listed nor cross-listed in History toward their concentration). The "People" page lists faculty and graduate students working in economic history broadly conceived to encourage students to consult with them on issues of mutual interest.

 

Courses

(Courses offered by History Department faculty automatically count for the History concentration)

Fall 2020:

  • HIST 83A: Market and States: The History of Economic Thought Since 1750
  • HIST 1028: Race, Capitalism, and the Coming of the Civil War
  • HIST 1939: Economic History of Modern China
  • HIST 2968: History and Economics: Proseminar
  • HIST 2955A: History of Global Capitalism: Seminar

Spring 2021:

  • GENED 1159: American Capitalism
  • HIST 84G: Harvard and Slavery
  • HIST 1602: Modern China
  • HIST 2955B: History of Global Capitalism: Seminar

Past Course Offerings on Economic History :

  • GENED 1159: American Capitalism
  • HIST 13E: History of Modern Mexico
  • HIST 13O: When the Bottom Falls Out: The History of Economic Crisis in America
  • HIST 13T: Women in Economic Life
  • HIST 13U: Asian Diasporas in Global History
  • HIST 13Z: Liberty and Slavery: The British Empire and the American Revolution
  • HIST 14A: The Medieval Mediterranean: Conflict and Unity, Tradition and Innovation
  • HIST 14C: Tell Old Pharoah: Histories of “Contraband Camps” and Self-Emancipation in the Civil War Era
  • HIST 14E: The Cold War in the Global South
  • HIST 14I: American Food, A Global History: More Than Just a Meal
  • HIST 14K: Oil and Empire
  • HIST 74N: U.S. History: Major Themes in the Twentieth Century
  • HIST 83A: Market and States: The History of Economic Thought Since 1750
  • HIST 89A: British Colonial Violence in the 20th Century
  • HIST 89J: The United States and China: Opium War to the Present
  • HIST 97L: What is Atlantic History?
  • HIST 1001: The War in Vietnam
  • HIST 1006: Native American and Indigenous Studies: An Introduction
  • HIST 1008: The State of Israel in Comparative Perspective
  • HIST 1018: Coffee and the Nighttime: History and Politics, 1400–2020
  • HIST 1028: Race, Capitalism, and the Coming of the Civil War
  • HIST 1032: A History of Brazil, from Independence to the Present
  • HIST 1034: Modern Latin America, 1800–present
  • HIST 1035: Byzantine Civilization
  • HIST 1038: Debating Capitalism: The History of American Economic Thought
  • HIST 1050: Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Atlantic World
  • HIST 1053: After Catastrophe: Europe since 1945
  • HIST 1059: Deep History
  • HIST 1155: Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789
  • HIST 1206: Empire, Nation, and Immigration in France since 1870
  • HIST 1265: German Empires, 1848–1948
  • HIST 1270: Frontiers of Europe: Ukraine since 1500
  • HIST 1281: The End of Communism
  • HIST 1284: Revolutionary Eurasia, 1905–1949
  • HIST 1290: The History of the Russian Empire
  • HIST 1433: History of American Populisms
  • HIST 1457: History of American Capitalism
  • HIST 1602: Modern China
  • HIST 1623: Japan in the Modern World
  • HIST 1701: West Africa from 1800 to the Present
  • HIST 1908: Racial Capitalism and the Black Radical Tradition
  • HIST 1910: The History of Energy
  • HIST 1917: Are You Now or have You Ever Been an Android? The New Materialism
  • HIST 1950: Beyond 'The End of History': Rethinking Europe's Long Twentieth Century, 1900–2018
  • HIST 1959: The People's Republic of China and the World
  • HIST 1960: The European Union: Achievements and Crises
  • HIST 2055: Early Medieval History, Archaeology and Archaeoscience: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2056: Readings in Late Antique and Medieval History: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2059: Deep History: A Graduate Seminar in Undergraduate Education
  • HIST 2260: Central Europe: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2400: Readings in Colonial and Revolutionary America: Graduate Proseminar
  • HIST 2442: Readings in the History of the U.S. in the 19th Century: Graduate Proseminar
  • HIST 2480A: The Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2480B: The Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2484A: Crime and Punishment in the History of the Americas: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2652: Topics in Japanese History: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2690: Asia in the Modern World: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2725: History and Anthropology: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2950A: Approaches to Global History: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2950B: Approaches to Global History: Graduate Seminar
  • HIST 2955A: History of Global Capitalism: Seminar
  • SOCWORLD 12: CHINA: Past, Present, FutureSOCWORLD36: Modern India and South Asia
  • SOCWORLD 13: Japan in Asia and the World
  • SOCWORLD 36: Modern India and South Asia
  • SOCWORLD 41: Medieval Europe: History, Archaeology, and Archaeoscience
  • SOCWORLD 42 The World Wars and Global Transformation, 1900–1950
  • SOCWORLD 49: The Worlds of Business in Modern China
  • US-WORLD 28: Racial Capitalism and Imperialism: The US between the Revolution and the Civil War
  • US-WORLD 30: Tangible Things: Harvard Collections in World History
  • US-WORLD 38: Forced to be Free: Americans as Occupiers and Nation-Builders

*Please be sure to check the Courses section of the History Website for more information on which of these courses count towards the History concentration and secondary field. Also, while we endeavor to keep this list current, it may not reflect all courses actually offered.*

People

FACULTY

  • History
    • Sunil Amrith: Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies; Professor of History; Director, Center for History and Economics
    • Sven Beckert: Laird Bell Professor of History
    • Sugata Bose: Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs
    • Vincent Brown: Charles Warren Professor of American History; Professor of African and African American Studies
    • Joyce Chaplin: James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History
    • Lizabeth Cohen: Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies
    • Alejandro de la Fuente: Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics; Professor of African and African American Studies and of History; Director, Afro-Latin American Research Institute
    • Arunabh Ghosh: Assistant Professor of History
    • Andrew Gordon: Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History
    • Tamar Herzog: Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs; Radcliffe Alumnae Professor
    • Elizabeth Hinton: Assistant Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
    • Walter Johnson: Winthrop Professor of History; Professor of African and African American Studies; Director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History
    • Alison Frank Johnson: Professor of History; Director of Graduate Studies
    • William C. Kirby: Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration; T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies; Chairman, Harvard China Fund
    • Mary Lewis: Robert Walton Goelet Professor of French History
    • Kenneth W. Mack: Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law
    • Charles S. Maier: Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History
    • Michael McCormick: Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History; Chair, Science of the Human Past
    • Kelly O’Neill: Associate Professor of History
    • Emma Rothschild: Jeremy and Jane Knowles Professor of History; Director, Center for History and Economics
    • Daniel Lord Smail: Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History
  • Economics
  • Sociology
    • Michèle Lamont: Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies; Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies
    • Ya-Wen Lei: Assistant Professor of Sociology
    • Orlando Patterson: John Cowles Professor of Sociology
  • Government
  • Anthropology
  • East Asian Languages and Civilizations
  • HLS
  • HBS
  • KSG

Workshops and Other Resources