Led by: Prof. David Sicilia (University of Maryland)
Course Number: AMHI 612
Semesters: Summer 2025, Summer 2023, Fall 2021
Image: Democratic National Campaing Committee, “Facts—Mr. Business Man,” 1936. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09532.03)
Capitalism in American History
Capitalism in American History
Course Description
By 1900, the United States was the world’s leading economy. Through a clear definition of capitalism and a set of core questions, this course explores how capitalism emerged in British North America; economic dimensions of the American Revolution and Constitution; the role of slavery, the state, and corporations in nineteenth-century capitalist expansion; America’s unique pathways to industrialization; the rise of big business and its impact on US politics, society, and industrial work; the Second Industrial Revolution; causes of the Great Depression; how the New Deal and World War II created a mixed economy; the predominance of consumerism in postwar America; the erosion of US global competitiveness in the 1970s; the rise of neoliberalism and financialization since the 1980s; and the impact of economic theory on economic policymaking.
Please note that the required books listed under course readings are finalized but other aspects of the course syllabus are subject to change. We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase made through the Bookshop.org links provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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About the Scholar
David Sicilia, Henry Kaufman Chair of Financial History, Emeritus, University of Maryland
David B. Sicilia is an associate professor, emeritus, in the Department of History and Henry Kaufman Chair of Financial History at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His research and teaching center on business, economic, and technology history, with a special emphasis on the history of capitalism and finance. He is the author of four books and has received grants and fellowships from the United States-Denmark Fulbright Commission; the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Warren Center at Harvard University, and the Science History Institute, among others. Since 1980 he has consulted for a variety of private and public institutions that seek to apply historical analysis to contemporary issues. Sicilia has appeared on CNBC, CNN Financial News, Bloomberg Financial Television, National Public Radio, DR-1 Danish Public Television, and NHK Television Japan.
The views expressed in the course descriptions and lectures are those of the lead scholars.