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MASTER SYLLABUS

Master Syllabus

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Administrative Unit: History and Political Science Department
Course Prefix and Number: HIST 371
Course Title: *History of American Business
Number of:
Credit Hours 3
Lecture Hours 3
Lab Hours 0
Catalog Description:

Analysis of American business from the colonial period to the present. The course traces activities of significant entrepreneurs and the firms they built. It focuses on the managerial revolution that established a modern industrial order, wherein the corporation became the primary instrument for organizing the processes of production, distribution and consumption. Significant attention is given to systems of technology, transportation, communication and labor indicative of America’s free enterprise system. Cross-listed as MGMT 371. Prerequisite: Junior standing.
 
Prerequisite(s) / Corequisite(s): Junior standing.
 
Course Rotation for Day Program: Occasional offering.
 
Text(s): Most current editions of the following:


The required text must be assigned and supplemented with a minimum of two recommended texts. Additional primary and secondary sources may be assigned as well. Other appropriate scholarly monographs may be assigned.




Major Problems in American Business History
By Blaszczyk, Regina Lee & Philip Scranton (Cengage)
Required
Business Enterprise in American History
By Blackford, Mansel & Austin Kerr (Cengage)
Required
Capitalizing on Change: A Social History of American Business
By Buder, Stanley (University of North Carolina Press)
Recommended
The Entrepreneurial Adventure: A History of Business in the United States
By Schweikart, Larry (Wadsworth)
Recommended
An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power
By Gordon, John Steele (Harper Collins)
Recommended
Entrepreneurs: Explorations within the American Business Tradition
By Sobel, Robert (Beard Books)
Recommended
The Vital Few: The Entrepreneur and American Economic Progress
By Hughes, Jonathan (Oxford University Press)
Recommended
Making America Corporate
By Zunz, Oliver (University Of Chicago Press )
Recommended
The Economic Transformation of America
By Heilbroner, Richard & Aaron Singer (Wadsworth)
Recommended
A New Economic View of American History
By Atack, Jeremy & Peter Passell (Norton)
Recommended
The Rise of Big Business, 1860-1920
By Porter, Glenn (Harlan Davidson)
Recommended
American Business Since 1920: How It Worked
By McCraw, Thomas K. (Harlan Davidson)
Recommended
A History of Small Business in America
By Blackford, Mansel G. (University of North Carolina Press)
Recommended
 
Course Objectives
  • To appreciate the American approach to enterprise, the principles of entrepreneurship and the consequences of industrial supremacy.
  • To explore the interrelationships between the managerial revolution in business and the scale and scope of corporate capitalism in the United States.
  • To compare and contrast various historiographical perspectives on American business.
    		•
     
    Measurable Learning Outcomes:
    • • Describe the significant people, places and events of American business history. • Analyze the economic factors that shaped the transition from mercantilism to capitalism in North America. • Explain the role of public and private investment in developing interstate commerce for the early republic. • Differentiate the primary objectives, industries and ethics of corporate executives during the nineteenth century. • Study the experiences of businessmen and women at work from their first-hand accounts. • Describe the impact of consumer capitalism on mass marketing during the early twentieth century. • Analyze the economic impact of the Great Crash and the Great Depression. • Describe the transition from manufacturing to service industries in the age of multinational corporations. • Evaluate the strengths, weaknesses and trends in the historiography of American business.
    • Analyze primary documents within a historical framework.
     
    Topical Outline:

    Because the course represents an upper level history elective, it bears a distinctive responsibility for teaching advanced knowledge within the discipline. It must be distinguished as an advanced course by three structural components: extensive reading, intensive writing, and historiographical thinking. It must require advanced students to complete both in class and out of class projects (i.e., midterms, finals, team reports, quizzes, research papers). It must demand a minimum of 1,000 pages of required text reading, 1,000 words of type-written work, and a consideration of the range and variance of historical scholarship. Finally, it must develop student skills and abilities for researching diverse sources of knowledge and organizing findings through synthesis. • The firm in American history • Business enterprise in the new world • Mercantilism and capitalism in colonial America • Entrepreneurs in the new republic • Public and private wealth in antebellum America • Industrial expansion • Slave labor and the plantation system • The rise of corporate managers • The age of big business • Technological innovation and expertise • Regulating the industrial giants • The emergence of a consumer market • The Great Crash and the Depression • The impact of war on American business and economy • Business leadership in the Cold War • Globalization and multinational corporations • Post-industrial America
     
    Culminating Experience Statement:

    Material from this course may be tested on the Major Field Test (MFT) administered during the Culminating Experience course for the degree. 
    During this course the ETS Proficiency Profile may be administered.  This 40-minute standardized test measures learning in general education courses.  The results of the tests are used by faculty to improve the general education curriculum at the College.
     

    Recommended maximum class size for this course: 35
     
    Library Resources:

    Online databases are available at http://www.ccis.edu/offices/library/index.asp. You may access them from off-campus using your CougarTrack login and password when prompted.
     
    Prepared by: Tonia Compton Date: October 13, 2010
    NOTE: The intention of this master course syllabus is to provide an outline of the contents of this course, as specified by the faculty of Columbia College, regardless of who teaches the course, when it is taught, or where it is taught. Faculty members teaching this course for Columbia College are expected to facilitate learning pursuant to the course objectives and cover the subjects listed in the topical outline. However, instructors are also encouraged to cover additional topics of interest so long as those topics are relevant to the course's subject. The master syllabus is, therefore, prescriptive in nature but also allows for a diversity of individual approaches to course material.

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