POTENTIAL SOURCES FOR STUDENT TERM PAPERS, GROUPED
BY TOPIC
AMERICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY BEFORE 1900
FALL 2002
This list gives several good sources for your term papers. It
is by no means comprehensive, but if you're doing one of the topics listed
below, it ought to be helpful. There are, of course, many more acceptable
topics besides the ones listed below.
General piece of advice: Make ample use of the course reading
materials, including your textbooks and the course reading packet.
While textbooks should not be your main sources for the term paper, you
certainly should try to get whatever information you can from the course
materials.
Economic causes of the American Revolution
-
Egnal, Marc. A Mighty Empire. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1988. (On reserve at Penfield Library.)
-
Egnal, Marc, & Joseph Ernst. "An Economic Interpretation of the American
Revolution," William and Mary Quarterly 24: 3-31 (1972).
-
McCusker, John J., and Russell R. Menard. The Economy of British America,
1607-1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
-
Morgan, Edmund S. The Birth of the Republic, 1763-1789.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956.
-
Perkins, Edwin J. The Economy of Colonial America. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1988. (Pages 187-211 in particular.)
-
Reid, Joseph. "Economic Burden: Spark to the American Revolution?"
Journal
of Economic History 38: 81-100 (1978).
Indentured servitude and slavery
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Galenson, David. White Servitude in Colonial America.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
-
Grubb, Farley. "Immigrant Servant Labor...," Social Science History
9:249-75 (1985).
-
Grubb, Farley. "The Market for Indentured Immigrants: Evidence on
the Efficiency of Forward Labor Contracting in Philadelphia, 1745-1773,"
Journal
of Economic History 45: 855-68 (1985).
-
Grubb, Farley. "The Trans-Atlantic Market for British Convict Labor,"
Journal
of Economic History 60: 94-122 (2000).
-
McCusker, John J., and Russell R. Menard. The Economy of British America,
1607-1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
-
Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom. New York:
W.W. Norton, 1975.
Native American economic history
-
Barrington, Linda, editor. The Other Side of the Frontier: Economic
Explorations into Native American History. Boulder, CO: Westview
Press, 1998.
-
Salisbury, Neal. "The History of Native Americans From Before the
Arrival of the Europeans and Africans Until the American Civil War."
In The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume I,
edited by Stanley L. Engerman & Robert E. Gallman. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Railroads and the American economy
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Chandler, Alfred D. "The Railroads: The First Modern Business Enterprises,
1850s-1860s." In Historical Perspectives on the American Economy,
edited by Robert Whaples and Dianne C. Betts. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1995.
-
Fishlow, Albert. American Railroads and the Transformation of
the Antebellum Economy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1965.
-
Fishlow, Albert. "Transportation in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries."
In The Cambridge Economic History of the United States, Volume II,
edited by Stanley L. Engerman & Robert E. Gallman. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.
-
Fogel, Robert. Railroads and American Economic Growth.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964.
-
Fogel, Robert. "Notes on the Social Savings Controversy," Journal
of Economic History 39: 1-54 (1979)
-
McClelland, Peter. "Railroads, American Growth, and the New Economic
History: A Critique," Journal of Economic History 28: 102-23 (1972).
Slavery's productivity, compared with non-slave agriculture / Slavery's
profitability
-
David, Paul, et al. Reckoning With Slavery. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1976.
-
Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. Time on the Cross: The Economics
of American Negro Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989 [originally
published in 1974].
-
Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. "Explaining the Relative Efficiency
of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South," American Economic Review
67: 275-96 (1977).
-
Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. "Explaining the Relative Efficiency
of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: A Reply," American Economic
Review 70: 672-90 (1980).
-
Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York:
W.W. Norton, 1978.
-
Wright, Gavin. "The Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: Another Interpretation,"
American
Economic Review 69 (1979): 219-26.
Slavery and Southern economic development / Slavery's macroeconomic
impact
-
Bateman, Fred, and Thomas Weiss. A Deplorable Scarcity: The Failure
of Industrialization in the Slave Economy. Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1981.
-
David, Paul, et al. Reckoning With Slavery. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1976.
-
Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. Time on the Cross: The Economics
of American Negro Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989 [1974].
-
Fogel, Robert W., and Stanley Engerman. "Explaining the Relative Efficiency
of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South: A Reply," American Economic
Review 70: 672-90 (1980).
-
Parker, William. "Slavery and Southern Economic Development," Agricultural
History 44:115-125 (1970). (Penfield Library doesn't carry this journal,
but I have extra copies of this article.)
-
Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York:
W.W. Norton, 1978.
-
Wright, Gavin. "The Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture: Another Interpretation,"
American
Economic Review 69 (1979): 219-26.
-
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
(Chapter 2, "From Laborlords to Landlords," should be especially useful).
Slavery as the main cause of the Civil War
-
Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers. Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men.
Chicago: Open Court Press, 1996.
-
McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1988.
-
Ransom, Roger. Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy
of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
-
Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York:
W.W. Norton, 1978.
American blacks' economic gains, 1865-1900
-
Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. (1934.
Good historical source.)
-
Higgs, Robert. Competition and Coercion. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press [?], 1977.
-
Margo, Robert. "Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks: Comment and
Further Evidence," American Economic Review 74:768-76 (September
1984).
-
Margo, Robert. Race and Schooling in the South, 1880-1950. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1990.
-
Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.
New York: Harper, 1944.
-
Ransom, Roger. Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy
of Slavery, Emancipation, and the American Civil War. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1989.
-
Ransom, Roger, and Richard Sutch. One Kind of Freedom. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1977.
-
Various authors. First six articles in Explorations in Economic
History 38(1), January 2001. (Available through Interlibrary
Loan, and I have a copy in my office.)
-
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
Women's labor force participation in the 1800s
-
Goldin, Claudia. Understanding the Gender Gap. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1990.
-
Goldin, Claudia. "The Changing Economic Role of Women: A Quantitative
Approach." In Historical Perspectives on the American Economy,
edited by Robert Whaples and Dianne C. Betts. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1995.
-
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning
Women in America. New York: Schocken Books, 1982.
-
Matthaei, Julie. An Economic History of Women in America. New York:
Schocken Books, 1982. (Available through Interlibrary Loan.)
-
Rotella, Elyce. "The Equal Rights Amendment--Yes, But Whose?"
In Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History, edited
by Donald McCloskey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
-
Wright, Gavin. "Understanding the Gender Gap: A Review Article," Journal
of Economic Literature 29:1153-1163 (September 1991).
Last revised on 17-Oct.-2002