Harvard University

History 79C (Spring 2009)

Seminar in International Capitalism: Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Nations
Meeting Time: Wednesday, 1:00-3:00
Course Location: Sever 201
Office Hours: Thursday, 12:45-1:45, Robinson M-03 in History Dept.
Instructor: Walter A. Friedman
wfriedman@hbs.edu
Office: 104 Rock Center
Harvard Business School

E-mail:
Office Phone: 495-1003

Overview: The economist Joseph Schumpeter defined capitalism as a

perennial gale of creative destruction. This course explores the history of
business and capitalism in four countries: Britain, the US, Germany, and
Japan. Themes include entrepreneurship, management, regulation,
salesmanship, the evolution of big business, and differences in national
economic systems.
Books:
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Inventing the Electronic Century (2005 edition)
Alfred D. Chandler Jr., Franco Amatori, and Takashi Hikino, eds., Big Business
and the Wealth of Nations (1997)
Walter A. Friedman, Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in
America (2004)
Geoffrey Jones, Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to
the Twenty-First Centuries (2005)
Thomas K. McCraw, ed., Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs,
Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions (1996)
Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi
Economy (2006)
James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos, The Machine that
Changed the World: Toyotas Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars that is
Now Revolutionizing World Industry (2007 edition)
Articles:
Hartmut Berghoff, The End of Family Business? The Mittelstand and German
Capitalism in Transition, 1949-2000, Business History Review vol. 80, no. 2
(Summer 2006): 263-95

Alfred D. Chandler Jr., The Competitive Performance of U.S. Industrial

Enterprises since the Second World War, Business History Review vol. 68, no.
1 (Spring 1994): 1-72
Andrea Colli and Mary Rose, Family Business, Oxford Handbook of Business
History (2007)
Peter M. Jones, Living the Enlightenment and the French Revolution: James
Watt, Matthew Boulton, and Their Sons, The Historical Journal 42:1 (Mar.
1999): 157182.
Thomas K. McCraw, Schumpeters Business Cycles as Business History,
Business History Review vol. 80, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 231-61
Additional materials:
Handout of current world economic statistics and selected book reviews.
Course Requirements and Grading Breakdown:
Weekly written responses to readings due before class (12 pages):
36% (3% each)
Discussion participation (quantity and quality): 27%
One in-class presentation: 10%
Paper (10-12 pages; 3,500 words), due at end of term, and paper
proposal due week 3: 27%
CLASS SCHEDULE:
Week 1: Introduction to Course
Readings:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Chapters 1, Introduction
McCraw, Schumpeters Business Cycles as Business History
Week 2: British Capitalism/ Wedgwood
Readings:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Wedgwood and British Capitalism (pp.
5185)
P. Jones, Living the Enlightenment and the French Revolution: James
Watt, Matthew Boulton, and Their Sons

Week 3: British Industry /Rolls Royce

Readings:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Rolls Royce and the Rise of HighTechnology Industry
G. Jones, Great Britain: Big Business, Management, and
Competitiveness in Twentieth-Century Britain, Big Business and the
Wealth of Nations
* Paper proposal due
Week 4: German Capitalism
Readings:
Berghoff, The End of Family Business? The Mittelstand and German
Capitalism in Transition, 1949-2000
Creating Modern Capitalism, German Capitalism
Week 5: German Steel: Family Business and Cartels
Reading:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Thyssen Steel
Colli and Rose, Family Business
Week 6: Banking and Business Ethics
Readings:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Deutsche Bank
Tooze, Wages of Destruction, chapter 4
Week 7: The American Automobile Industry
Reading:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan
Birth of a Salesman, introduction and chapter 8

Week 8: The U.S. Economic System

Reading:
Creating Modern Capitalism, American Capitalism
Chandler, The Competitive Performance of U.S. Industrial Enterprises
since the Second World War
Week 9: American Technology/IBM
Reading:
Creating Modern Capitalism, IBM
Inventing the Electronic Century, chapters 1-5
Week 10: The Japanese Textile and Automobile Industries
Reading:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Toyoda/Toyota
The Machine that Changed the World, chapters 9, 10, and Epilogue
Week 11: The Japanese Economy
Reading:
Creating Modern Capitalism, Japanese Capitalism
Selected book reviews on Japanese capitalism
Week 12: High-Technology Industries in Japan
Reading:
Chandler, Inventing the Electronic Century, chapters 6-8
Creating Modern Capitalism, Seven-Eleven, Japan
Week 13: Globalization
Reading:

Jones, Multinationals and Global Capitalism, Parts I and V