A suggestion (you probably already have it): This looks like a broad sweep course. Give them lots of charts. Kids (and adults) tend to write on them and remember better -- that's a goal, isn't it?. For many of them, this might be the only econ class -- ever! Don't want to miss the opportunity.
Communication, production, distribution and control from -4000 to now? Well I suppose this is the sort of narrow-gauge stuff the kids are into these days.
The rest of the faculty has gone on strike and you are the Universal Scab? They’re making you teach everything now, aren’t they? “In Week 7 we cover Engineering from Archimedes to The Apollo program, plus Theology from City of God to Niebuhr. There WILL be a quiz.” Good luck fitting this into a 15-second TikTok. I imagine a firehose mounted on the lectern pointed outward. And yet... I wish I were among them.
Professor DeLong, Assume I'm a smartass student in your class. I point out: IF Germany had not seized Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco Prussian War; IF there had been no WWI or if Russia and Germany had stayed out the 1914 Balkans crisis and evolved into constitutional monarchies; IF European leaders had been farsighted and altruistic in preparing their colonies for independence instead of exploiting them, then yes, maybe the world might have achieved economic utopia in the late 20th century. But given the flaws of human nature, how likely is this? What would you tell such a student?
Yes: if nothing goes wrong, things go right. But why did things go wrong? And what other things almost went wrong, and would have gone wrong had we rerun history?
A suggestion (you probably already have it): This looks like a broad sweep course. Give them lots of charts. Kids (and adults) tend to write on them and remember better -- that's a goal, isn't it?. For many of them, this might be the only econ class -- ever! Don't want to miss the opportunity.
Good idea!
Communication, production, distribution and control from -4000 to now? Well I suppose this is the sort of narrow-gauge stuff the kids are into these days.
The rest of the faculty has gone on strike and you are the Universal Scab? They’re making you teach everything now, aren’t they? “In Week 7 we cover Engineering from Archimedes to The Apollo program, plus Theology from City of God to Niebuhr. There WILL be a quiz.” Good luck fitting this into a 15-second TikTok. I imagine a firehose mounted on the lectern pointed outward. And yet... I wish I were among them.
Wish I could take this class!
Professor DeLong, Assume I'm a smartass student in your class. I point out: IF Germany had not seized Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco Prussian War; IF there had been no WWI or if Russia and Germany had stayed out the 1914 Balkans crisis and evolved into constitutional monarchies; IF European leaders had been farsighted and altruistic in preparing their colonies for independence instead of exploiting them, then yes, maybe the world might have achieved economic utopia in the late 20th century. But given the flaws of human nature, how likely is this? What would you tell such a student?
Yes: if nothing goes wrong, things go right. But why did things go wrong? And what other things almost went wrong, and would have gone wrong had we rerun history?
I would suggest that the student read a book called Virtual History.
Who wrote/edited it?
I also sent you an email.
Niall Ferguson, editor. Basic Books, 1997.
Thanks for the tip. I'm going to check that book out of the library.
Why do maps have such finely differentiated color schemes that the differences are nearly invisible? :)
Best of luck, Professor.
That looks very good. Onward!