14.72 | Fall 2013 | Undergraduate

Capitalism and Its Critics

Calendar

WEEK # TOPICS KEY DATES
I. Introduction and Overview
1 The Evolution of the Industrial State  
2 Paradigms in Social Science  
II. Liberalism and Neoclassical Economics
2 Film: The Fountainhead. Directed by King Vidor. Black and White, 114 min. 1949.  
3

Discussion of Rand

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

 
4

Becker

Gilder

 
III. Marxism, Economics and Politics
5

Marxism: The Manifesto

Elster

 
6

Capital, The Division of Labor and Machinery

Bowles and Gintis

Foley

7 Midterm Exam Essay 1 due
IV. The Social Embeddedness of the Economy
8

Introduction

Weber

 
9

Polanyi

Schumpeter

 
10 Keynes  
V. The Rise and Fall of the Corporate State
10 Galbraith and Solow  
11 Piore and Sabel Essay 2 due
VI. The Crisis
12–13

The Crisis

Davis

Lo

 
VII. Recasting Individualism
13

Thaler and Sunstein

DellaVigna

 
14

Arendt

Sacks

Lester and Piore

Essay 3 due
15

The Soul of A New Machine

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

Wrap Up

 
16 Final Exam  

Course Info

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Fall 2013