Program Overview

Economic History and Ideas (SESS0024)

Key Information

• Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• Teaching department: School of Slavonic and East European Studies
• Credit value: 30
• Restrictions: This module is open to year 2 and year 3/4 students only. In order to register for this course, students must have the following prerequisites completed previously:
  • SESS0007 Introduction to Microeconomics
  • SESS0008 Introduction to Macroeconomics
  • or their equivalents: ECON0002, BCPM0058

Alternative Credit Options

This module is offered in several versions which have different credit weightings (e.g., either 15 or 30 credits).

• Economic History and Ideas A (SESS0025)
• Economic History and Ideas A (SESS0054)

Description

The course Economic History and Ideas is a core intermediate (year 2) course for undergraduate students in the new History, Politics and Economics programme. It is a full course unit spanning the autumn and spring terms. The course combines a discussion of modern economic history with analysis of economic theory, so as to provide proper context for the ideas, as they appeared throughout the last two centuries. Each week covers one major topic. About two thirds of the time will be devoted to questions of actual historical economic developments, the remaining one third to history of economic ideas. Topics include, for example, the interaction between institutions and economic development, the demographic transition, market integration, the causes and consequences of technological change, the emergence of modern schooling, the rise and fall of slavery and serfdom, the Great Depression and others on the economic history side; the birth of economics, the debate over free trade in 19th century Europe, the Malthusian trap, the marginalist revolution, the Keynesian critique and the rise of modern growth theory on the history of thought side. The course is comparative in its geographic focus: in considering the trends in economic history, we look not only at the success stories of Britain, Holland and the US but also at the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The overarching theme in modern economic history of Eastern and Central Europe is the effort to catch up economically (and, by extension, militarily) with the West. The comparative aspect consists in seeing how policies and activities, employed in the West, succeeded or failed in the East- and Central-European context and how specific developmental features of the region contributed to, or detracted from, the long-term economic development.

Teaching Delivery

The course is based on two contact hours per week: in half of the weeks, there is a two-hour lecture, the remaining weeks have a one-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial.

Indicative Topics

1. The historical record of economic growth before the Industrial Revolution
2. Intensive Growth Begins: The Record
3. Growth explanations: geography
4. Growth explanations: culture
5. Growth explanations: Institutions
6. Coerced labour: nature and extent of slavery and serfdom
7. Abolition of coerced labour: its logic and timeframe
8. Sources and nature of innovation
9. Diffusion of new technology
10. The Birth of Modern Economics
11. The Bad Rap of Dismal Science
12. Demographic transition
13. Market integration and the first globalization
14. The free-trade debate in Europe
15. Rise of schooling in 19th and 20th centuries
16. Rise of the corporation
17. Evolution of the gold standard
18. Emergence of modern banking
19. Marginalist revolution
20. Experiments with central planning
21. Famines in modern history
22. The Changing labour market
23. The Great Depression
24. Keynesian economics and the discovery of market failure
25. Growth of Public Sector
26. The Great Recession and the Fiscal Crisis in Europe
27. Growth, inequality and conclusions

Module Aims

To acquaint students with the available record of the long-term trends in economic development around the world and to inform their understanding of the main debates surrounding the causes and the effects of these trends. In terms of skills acquisition, the aim of the module is to improve students' interpretation of empirical evidence, to guide them in developing a good sense of proportion when evaluating historical phenomena and in acquiring basic intellectual immunity against every kind of cockamamie economic quackery that so frequently intrude upon our public discourse.

Module Deliveries for 2026/27 Academic Year

Intended Teaching Term: Terms 1 and 2

• Undergraduate (FHEQ Level 5)

Teaching and Assessment

• Mode of study: In person
• Methods of assessment:
  • 60% Coursework
  • 40% Exam
• Mark scheme: Numeric Marks

Other Information

• Number of students on module in previous year: 109
• Module leader: Dr Tomas Cvrcek

Module Details

This module description was last updated on 10th March 2026.