The course
History 419A
Spring 1996
M/W 11:00-12:30
IBM-TQ Teaching Theater
Van Munching Hall 2203
The instructor
Dr. David Sicilia
Office: Key 2101-J
Office phone: 405-7778
E-mail: DS190@umail.umd.edu
Office hours: M 9:00-10:00, W 8:30-10:00
This course explores the evolution of American entrepreneurship,
businessmanagement, and organizational structure within the context of
changing public policy, technology, labor, ideology, and markets. We
will give special emphasis to entrepreneurial innovation, the rise of
big business, regulation, mass marketing, and global competition.
"The Evolution of American Business" is designed to facilitate student-centered, interactive learning. We will rely on the case method developed at the Harvard Business School and utilize many of the powerful instructional hardware and software tools in the IBM-TQ Teaching Theater. Students will be expected to engage regularly and thoughtfully in class oral and electronic discussions, collaborative projects, and electronic reflector dialogues.
Prerequisites:
None. Typing skills useful. This course is designed for
students with an interest in business, business history or modern
United States history. It is likely you will encounter one or more new
pedagogical methods or technologies in this course. If you presently
are not proficient with case method instruction, e-mail, or World Wide
Web, for example, you will become so early in the semester.
Computer accounts:
By the fourth class meeting you are required to:
Requirements:
1) You will be required to complete all of the course reading
assignments (approximately 50-80 pages per week). Readings must be
completed before class.
2) Based on this reading, you will be asked to submit short writing
assignments andparticipate in class activities. These will include:
3) A research project, to be designed in cooperation with the instructor. This project can take any number of forms -- written, multimedia, consulting, etc. -- depending on your interests and skills. The instructor will distribute a project plan and discuss this assignment more in class.
Grade composition:
Each course unit (corresponding to a class meeting) will be graded,
except for the units in weeks 1 and 15. You will be evaluated for each
unit based on your performance with all assignments related to that
unit (quizzes, reflector participation, in-class discussion, etc.) Each
graded unit will count for three percent of your total course grade,
for a total of 75 percent. The research project will account for the
remaining 25 percent.
* * *
Calendar of Discussion Topics and Reading Assignments
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION
1/29 Introduction: What is special about this course?
1/31 Uses of business history
WEEK 2: THE AGE OF THE MERCHANT
2/5 Mercantilism in the New World
WEEK 3: EARLY INDUSTRIALIZATION
2/12 Textile industry pioneers
WEEK 4: RAILROADS AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN MANAGEMENT
2/19 The Transportation Revolution
WEEK 5: THE RISE OF GIANT INDUSTRY
2/26 The Carnegie Formula
2/28 John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
WEEK 6: CORE AND PERIPHERY
3/4 Consolidation and Morganization
WEEK 7: BIG BUSINESS, UNIONS, AND WORKERS
3/11 Workers Organize
WEEK 8: THE REGULATORY STATE
3/25 Regulating Railroads
WEEK 10: THE RISE OF MASS DISTRIBUTION
4/8 The Mass Retailers
WEEK 11: UNEASY PARTNERS: BUSINESS AND THE STATE SINCE 1933
4/15 Business and the New Deal
WEEK 12: THE CONGLOMERATE ERA
4/22 Unrelated Diversification
WEEK 13: FACING GLOBAL COMPETITION
4/29 Course book: M. Holland, When the Machine Stopped, 129-280.
5/1 Reserve reading: Jeffrey A. Hart, "A comparative analysis of the sources of America's relative economic decline," in Michael A. Bernstein and David E.Adler, eds., Understanding American Economic Decline (Cambridge, England, 1994), 199-239.
WEEK 14: MERGERS, FINANCE, AND RESTRUCTURING IN THE 1980s
5/6 The Case of Michael Milken
reading: to be announced
5/8 Student projects
WEEK 15: CONCLUSION
5/13 Student projects
FINAL CLASS MEETING will be held during the final exam
period:
Thursday, May 16, 8:00-10:00 a.m. in the IBM Teaching Theater.