As there is no single text that covers the material in the way I wish to present it, the lectures in this course will be extremely important. (Do not expect to do well if you do not come to class religiously). The closest thing we will have to a textbook is:

Rondo Cameron and Larry Neal, A Concise Economic History of the World. New York: Oxford, 4th ed., 2003.

There are four other books at the bookstore from which I will assign readings.

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: Norton, 1997.

Note: The PBS documentary version of this book is available on YouTube.

Douglass C. North, Structure and Change in Economic History. New York: Norton, 1981.

Nathan Rosenberg and L. E. Birdzell, Jr., How the West Grew Rich. New York: Basic Books, 1986.

Niall Ferguson, Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2004.

As this is a “W” course, I have also asked the bookstore to order the following.  See also my notes on writing.

Deirdre McCloskey, Economical Writing. Waveland Press, 2nd edition, 1999.