Business, Economics, and Literature
Syllabus
This reading schedule is intended to be suggestive, not prescriptive. In the event we find that we need to spend more time on a text/film than originally allocated, we can adjust our syllabus accordingly. You should also know that one of the signs of a good class discussion is that we will not have time to address all the reading that has been assigned for a certain day. Let’s proceed with the understanding that this class, like life (and economic systems) is a set of contingencies. I will announce at the end of each class what specific portion of a text we will be discussing closely for the following session. Please stay tuned!
Please check out the resources links at the bottom of this page.
Short Fiction
| Week 1–3 |
No Strange Bedfellows: Literature & Economics Life and Labor in Victorian England
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| Week 4–5 |
Muckraking Journalism, Immigration, and Labor Reform in the United States
**** NOTEBOOKS DUE (1) AT THE END OF WEEK 4 **** |
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| Week 6-8 |
From the Roaring Twenties to The Great Depression
**** NOTEBOOKS DUE (2) AT THE END OF WEEK 8 **** |
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| Week 9–10 |
Left Behind in the (Postwar) U.S. Economy
**** NOTEBOOKS DUE (3) AT THE END OF WEEK 11 **** |
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| Week 11–13 |
Liquid Gold as Global Resource—The New Economy in Asia
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| Week 14 |
The Housing Bubble and Stock Market in Film
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| Week 15 |
Close to Home: Resources and Mass Tourism in the National Parks
Commercials Then and Now: From "Advertising" to Algorithmic Nano-Targeting
**** PAPER DUE (post-taxes) **** |
Final Exam Review and Final Exam:
- Below please find select useful websites on Literature & Economics. This is a collection in process, as every site (or ecomomic system) must be. Please stay tuned! :)
- The Muckrakers I, II => Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), Federal Meat Inspection Act (1906)
- Encyclopedia of Chicago: Meatpacking, Meatpacking & The Jungle, Meatpacking Images
- Neoliberalism--The Root of Our Problems?
- Can Fiction Sway Politics? (2015)
- Joseph Stiglitz, The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe, The Economist
- Why America's Business Majors are in Desperate Need of a Liberal Ars Education, The Atlantic
- Schumpeter, Hidden Persuaders II (The Economist 2011)
- Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants (2016)
- Maureen Corrigan, "What Peolpe Were Reading During the Great Depression." (NPR)
- Stephen Poole,Rethink: The Surprising History of New Ideas (NYT 2016)
- William Davies, The Sharing Economy Comes to Campus, (The Conversation, 2/2017)
- Gary Belsky, Why We Think We Are Better Investors Than We Are (NYT, 4/2017)
- Kadim Shubber,Here Come The Influencers (Financial Times, 5/2017)
- On the culture of leisure- Joseph Pieper, David Steindl-Rast, Theodor Adorno, Margaret Mead (brainpickings, 1/2018)
- Developing Cities for Everyone: Architecture in 2018, Look to the Streets, not the Sky (The Con, 12/17)
- Small Scale,Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement (MoMA, 3 Oct 2010 - 3 Jan 2011)
- A Century Ago: Muckrakers and "fake news" (The Con, 2/18)
- Living High and Risking High - Stock Investors and High Rises (The Con, 4/18)
- 7.5 Billion and Counting: How Many Humans can the Earth support? (The Con, 7/18)
- The Land That Failed to Fail--China I-V (NYT, 11-12/18)
- Toward a Circular Economy: Tackling the Plastic Recycling Problem (The Con, 1/19)
- Where is the World's New Meal Coming from? The Netherlands (Ozy, 1/19)
- Most Americans don't realize what companies can predict from their data (The Con 2/19)
- The Facts About Food and Climage Change (NYT, 5/19)
- Economics, Storytelling, & "economic sciences" (The Con, 10/20)
Last updated, 12 October 2020