About the Course
Note: The course is hosted through this wordpress site. For assignments, you should use this site to link to them on Moodle.
Course Description: The phrase “capitalism in America” raises big questions, and this course will look at such questions as: What is capitalism anyway? What was the relation between slavery and capitalism? Is capitalism the story of heroic entrepreneurs who through vision and courage built new enterprises? Has the government played any positive role in American capitalism or has it just stood in the way? Is fraud an aberration or an essential part of capitalism? Why has America had all these financial crises and how have Americans responded to them? Is capitalism in the twenty-first century something new or is it just a continuation of longer trends? Is it even reasonable to talk about capitalism in the United States alone?
Prerequisites: None
Course Objectives:
Students will
Examine various forms that capitalism has taken in American history and their connection to larger social, political, cultural, and technological factors.
Examine different ideas held within society about capitalism and business and their manifestations in practice.
Trace how Americans of various groups used capitalism to pursue their ends and responded to changes in capitalist practices affecting them.
Develop skills in reading and evaluating primary and secondary sources.
Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of this course students will be able to:
Describe changes in capitalist practice throughout American history and their social, political, cultural, and technological contexts.
Describe changes in the role of the American government in the history of capitalism.
Demonstrate knowledge of changing ideas about capitalism throughout American history.
Books and Readings:
You are not required to purchase any books for this course. The following books are available for purchase at the NCSU bookstore, but they are also available through the NCSU library.
Louis Hyman and Edward Baptist, eds, American Capitalism: A Reader (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014) $20.00
Library Electronic Copy
Bryant Simon, The Hamlet Fire (Chapel Hill: UNC Press 2017) $18.95
also available online through NCSU library
All other readings will be available online.
In addition, for the Capitalism in Post-World War II Project, you will need to have online access to the Raleigh News and Observer and the Charlotte Observer. You can do this by one of two ways:
1. By getting a library card at the NC State Library. This is free.
In any case, you will expected to have access to the News and Observer/Charlotte Observer by Mar 1
2. By getting a subscription to newspapers.com publishers extra at a cost of $19.90 per month. You can share a subscription with another student if you wish.
Zotero
One of the tools we will be using in this course to access material is Zotero, an online reference manager. Required materials for several of the History Labs will be found there. Please download zotero here. I have sent you an invitation to join a zotero group. Please accept that invitation. You will be expected to have joined the zotero group by Feb 15. Anyone who has not done so will have 1% deducted from their final grade. If you have any questions/problems using Zotero please contact me or our TA.
Grading
Your Final Grade will be based on the following components (see assignments tab for full details):
2% Introduction Due Jan 16 by Class Time
20% History Labs
15% In Class Quizzes/Reading Exercises
5% Class Sourced Project to Be announced
20% Capitalism in Post-WWII North Carolina Project
13% Mid-Term Examination/Paper–Due Feb 9
7% Participation
18% Final Paper-Due April 30 at 8:30am
Note: You can replace two quiz grades of your choice by a 100 by submitting a 250 word reading response on the relevant reading. Your response should show knowledge of the reading and discuss how the reading relates to the broader themes of the course. Submit reading response here and here.
Course/University Policies
Grading Scale
Your final grade will be based on the following scale
| 98 and up** | A+ |
| 93-98 | A |
| 90-93 | A- |
| 88-90 | B+ |
| 83-88 | B |
| 80-83 | B- |
| 78-80 | C+ |
| 73-78 | C |
| 70-73 | C- |
| 68-70 | D+ |
| 63-68 | D |
| 60-63 | D- |
| <60 | F |
**Note 1: An A+ grade is a rare grade, a, mark of extraordinary achievement and is not given solely on the basis of average. To receive an A+ the student’s work will be expected to have been exceptional throughout the course and the student will be expected to have made an active contribution to the class.
Attendance
You can’t do your best if you don’t come to classes. I expect everyone to come to class if you are not sick. (And please don’t come to class if you are sick.). This is an extraordinary time, and we will be very understanding of circumstance that may force you to miss class, but if you need to miss class, you need to fill out this absence from class form within one week of the date of your absence from class. Anyone who has excessive absences from class without documenting them through this form risks getting a 0 for their class participation grade.
Writing
For all formal papers for this class, your paper should use 12 point font, have 1 inch margins and be double spaced.
Writing is hard work and it is one of the foundations of this course. For many of you, it will be a central aspect of your careers. One of the goals of this course is to help you improve your writing.
— Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services
If writing is difficult for you, please visit the Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services to review drafts of assignments before they are due. The Service offers free one-on-one consultation with experienced tutors who can help with all levels and stages of writing. There are six locations around campus that offer drop-in services. For more information go to: https://tutorial.dasa.ncsu.edu/wsts-overview-programs/
–The UNC Writing Center (I hate to say this) has a great collection of handouts.
–Anne Lamott on the importance of “Shitty First Drafts”
–one of the best books on writing is Strunk and White, The Elements of Style It is really cheap and everyone should have a copy of it. However an older version (written by Strunk alone) is available for free on the web
Academic Integrity
When you hand in an assignment you are implicitly certifying that you have followed the honor pledge. (“I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this test or assignment.”) All papers are expected to be your own work. Passing off someone else’s work as your own is plagiarism, a very serious offense. If you quote other material directly you should make that clear by quotation marks and a proper citation (footnote). The Code of Student Conduct provides for very harsh penalties for plagiarism or giving or receiving unauthorized aid. I have and I will submit violations to the Board of Student Conduct. Please don’t go there!! It is not worth it.
The History Department has further information about plagiarism.
Disability Policy
Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, students must register with Disability Services for Students at 1900 Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509, 515-7653. For more information on NC State’s policy on working with students with disabilities, please see the Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Regulation (REG02.20.01).
Supporting Fellow Students in Distress
As members of the NCSU community, we share a responsibility to express concern for one another and to ensure that this classroom and the campus as a whole remains a safe learning environment. Occasionally, you may come across a fellow classmate whose personal behavior concerns or worries you. When this is the case, please report this behavior to the NC State Students of Concern website: http://studentsofconcern.ncsu.edu/. Although you can report anonymously, it is preferred that you share your contact information so they can follow up with you.
On Time Assignments
We will be discussing Benjamin Franklin and NC in the 19th/early 20th century history labs in class, so it is important to complete the lab before the class in which we discuss the project. If these History labs are submitted late without a valid excuse (illness, death in the family…) they will be penalized one letter grade per day late. For the other history labs, and for the midterm, and the Capitalism in Post WWII NC, each student has three grace days, that they can use during the course of the semester. That is you can hand in one assignment three days late, three assignments one day late, etc. After your grace days are used up, I will not accept late assignments. After you have used up your grace days, late papers will be penalized one third of a letter grade per day late. (An A paper will become an A-, etc.). The only exception is if your late reading response or homework is due to an illness or some other reason that would constitute an excused absence. Note: Grace days do not apply to the final paper.
NC State University Policies, Regulations and Rules
Students are responsible for reviewing the PRRs which pertain to their course rights and responsibilities. These include: http://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-04-25-05 (Equal Opportunity and Non-discrimination Policy Statement),
https://oied.ncsu.edu/divweb/policies/ (Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity),
http://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-11-35-01 (Code of Student Conduct),
http://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-50-03 (Grades and Grade Point Average),
https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-04 (Audits), and
https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-50-03 (Incompletes).
Bias Impact Response Team Syllabus Short Description
The OIED Bias Impact Response team offers a system and processes that invites NC State students, faculty and staff to document and proactively address the impacts of bias-related incidents, behaviors, and actions. To learn more or to submit a report, please visit https://diversity.ncsu.edu/bias-impact or email bias_impact@ncsu.edu.