Course description

Title of the Teaching Unit

Economic History

Code of the Teaching Unit

11UEC20

Academic year

2025 - 2026

Cycle

Number of credits

Number of hours

Quarter

Weighting

Site

Montgomery

Teaching language

French

Teacher in charge

GOUTSMEDT Aurélien

Objectives and contribution to the program

General objectives of the course
- Introduce students to part of their past by combining economic history and the history of international relations from a global perspective.
- Understand the nature, causes, and consequences of the economic development process that began in the 19th century and has continued in an uneven, irregular, and sometimes problematic manner across time and space since then. Understand Europe's special place in this process.
- Enable students to grasp a development in its entirety, with economic history being considered in its international, political, and social context.
- To place the challenges facing our society today in a historical perspective. Indeed, one of the objectives of the course is to raise awareness of the fact that major challenges have always existed (environmental constraints, economic crises, inequalities, protectionism and mercantilism, etc.), and that they have sometimes led to inappropriate responses and sometimes to progress for humanity.
- Introduce students to the basic concepts of economics and geopolitics.
- Introduce students to the main international economic institutions and their role.
- Strengthen students' ability to understand and analyze different data visualizations.

Contribution to the teaching profile (UE)
- Contribute to raising awareness of the complexity of the economic environment.
- Situate oneself in a global environment
- Become a responsible student
- Acquire knowledge related to economics and management subjects

Prerequisites and corequisites

n.a

Content

Introduction
Part I: The birth of capitalism, 15th-18th centuries
Chapter 1: Explaining the emergence of capitalism
Chapter 2: The beginnings of “globalization”
Chapter 3: Political economy and the birth of capitalism
Part II: Western domination, 18th-19th centuries
Chapter 4: The rise of the West
Chapter 5: Globalization and hegemony
Chapter 6: The downside of Western economic development
Chapter 7: Reflections on globalization and European domination in the 19th century
Part III: The major geopolitical and economic crises of the early 20th century
Chapter 8: The consequences of World War I and the failure of the new international monetary system
Chapter 9: The Roaring Twenties and the crisis of 1929
Chapter 10: The Great Depression and its responses
Chapter 11: Thinking about cycles and crises
Part IV: The post-war period and the “Glorious Thirty”
Chapter 12: “Embedded liberalism” and the construction of a new international monetary system
Chapter 13: A period of exceptional economic development
Chapter 14: Thinking about growth
Part V: The stagflation of the 1970s and its consequences
Chapter 15: The 1970s, a pivotal decade
Chapter 16: The consequences of stagflation on the global economy
Chapter 17: Explaining stagflation
Part VI: A financialized and globalized system heading for ecological disaster?
Chapter 18: The Financialization of the Global Economy
Chapter 19: The Geopolitics of Fossil Fuels
Chapter 20: Contested Hegemony: The Confrontation Between the United States and China
Chapter 21: What Role for the State in a Globalized and Financialized World?

Teaching methods

Course content posted online, including interactive slides.
Use of various media (films, podcasts, interactive visualizations and graphics, etc.).
Question and answer sessions in the form of quizzes.

Assessment method

Written exam with two types of assessment:
- Multiple-choice questions
- One short-answer question, to be chosen from several options.

Bonus points for regular work during the quadrimester:
- Weekly quiz on Moodle

References

Complementary readings
Allen, Robert Carson (2014). Introduction à l’histoire économique mondiale. Collection Grands repères. Paris: la Découverte. ISBN: 978-2-7071-7783-4.
François, Pierre and Claire Lemercier (2021). Sociologie historique du capitalisme. Grands repères. Paris: la Découverte. ISBN: 978-2-7071-7784-1.
Fressoz, Jean-Baptiste (2024). Sans Transition: Une Nouvelle Histoire de l’énergie. Écocène. Paris XIXe: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN: 978-2-02-153855-7.
Grataloup, Christian (2023). Géohistoire de La Mondialisation - 3e Éd.: Le Temps Long Du Monde. 3rd ed. Armand Colin. ISBN: 978-2-200-63786-6.
Grataloup, Christian and Patrick Boucheron (2019). Atlas historique mondiale. Paris: Les Arènes. ISBN: 978-2-7112-0184-6.
Laurent, Sylvie (2024). Capital et Race: Histoire d’une Hydre Moderne. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN: 978-2-02-149888-2.
Norel, Philippe (2013). L’histoire économique globale. New edition. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN: 978-2-7578-3172-4.
5Piketty, Thomas (2023). Une brève histoire de l’égalité. Paris: Éditions Points. ISBN: 978-2-7578-9935-9.
Walvin, James (2020). Histoire du sucre, histoire du monde. Paris: La Découverte. ISBN: 978-2-348-04621-6.