Instructor: Gregory Clark, Department of Economics, College of Letters and Science
Description: The basic outline of world economic history is surprisingly simple, and can be presented in one diagram as in the figure below. Before 1800 income per person for all societies we observe fluctuated, but there was no upward trend. The great span of human history - from the arrival of anatomically modern man and all the way to Jane Austen indeed - was lived in societies caught in the Malthusian trap. Jane Austen may write about refined conversation over tea served in China cups, but for the mass of people as late as 1813 material conditions were no better than their ancestors of the African savannah. The Darcys were few, the poor plentiful.
Then came the Industrial Revolution. Incomes per capita began a sustained growth in a favored group of countries around 1820. In the last two hundred years in the most fortunate countries real incomes per capita have risen 15 fold. But prosperity has not come to all societies. Living standards in some countries are as low as they were for the mass of humanity before 1800. Indeed there is good argument that living conditions for the poorest countries in the world are lower now than for the typical society before 1800. This divergence in fortunes since the Industrial Revolution has recently been labeled “the Great Divergence.”
Format: This 2-unit seminar will explain in simple terms, using material from history, economics, and anthropology, why the history of the world has taken this form. The seminar will be organized around the manuscript of a book the instructor has been working on of similar title. There will be a chapter assigned a week, along with one additional article. All the readings will be made available to students on the instructor’s web page. Grading: Grading policy not yet available.
About the Instructor: