Entrepreneurship: A Global History (254-0-20)

Instructors

Deborah Anne Cohen
847/491-4963
Harris Hall Room 238

Meeting Info

Locy Hall 301: Mon, Wed, Fri 3:00PM - 3:50PM

Overview of class

This course sets out to answer two big questions: What can history tell us about the making of successful entrepreneurs? How has entrepreneurship shaped the modern world? We will consider how the quest for new products and new markets helped to transform societies, economies and environments from the 1780s through the 1950s. We will ask why and how entrepreneurs as various as Josiah Wedgwood, Madame C.J. Walker, Jamsetji Tata, and Aristotle Onassis exploited opportunities that other people either failed to see or failed to act on. Among the subjects we'll discuss are the strengths and weaknesses of family firms, the search for capital, resource extraction and depletion, and the dynamics of globalization and deglobalization.

Learning Objectives

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline Students will:

• Assess competing explanations of historical transformations of economies and societies, showing an awareness of how claims are supported by evidence and how arguments are structured by analytic categories;

• Interpret different sorts of primary texts, including historical datasets, visual sources, in their appropriate historical context;

• Analyze methods of historical argumentation through the assessment of debates in the secondary literature about the significance of entrepreneurship;

• Formulate original arguments based on independent interpretation of both primary and secondary sources.

Evaluation Method

Mid-term exam:15%

4 "explain" papers (1 p.) and 3 "hunt" exercises: 25%

Strategy paper (due 17 Nov., inc. presentation) 20%

Final exam: 20%

Participation (including occasional reading quizzes): 20%

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area

Associated Classes

DIS - University Library 4722: Thurs 10:00AM - 10:50AM

DIS - University Library 3622: Thurs 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - University Library 3670: Thurs 1:00PM - 1:50PM