<p>Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of the history of money and exploration of the variety of their forms, uses, and behavior. Investigation of relationship of state power, elite interests, monetary media and uses, and financial innovations beginning in the ancient world. Survey of medieval and early modern periods, industrial age, two world wars and era of decolonization, and 21st century with cryptocurrency and meme stocks. Study is guided by theme of inequality. Consideration of how different kinds of monetary media and circulating systems affect the distribution of wealth across any community or society; and how politics, culture, and technology affect this distribution. P/NP or letter grading.</p>

History

College of Letters and Science

General Education — Social Analysis (Society & Culture)

General Education — Historical Analysis (Society & Culture)

HIST 12E - Inequality: History of Money

Inequality: History of Money

participate actively in discussion sections and to use their own words to recapitulate theories of money, critiques of these theories, and to articulate their own arguments about financial systems in history

assess material and textual primary sources, study how other historians have used them and produce their own analyses of these same primary sources.

evaluate the history of money and finance through carefully selected case studies from the ancient and medieval worlds, as well as early modern and modern societies.

learn about the major theories of money, understand the logic underpinning these theories, and evaluate each theory’s strengths and weaknesses. 

General Catalog

Inequality: History of Money

HIST 12E

5 units