Dr Jordan Claridge SAR 5.05 and Prof Max-Stephan Schulze SAR 6.14

This course is available on the BSc in Economic History, BSc in Economic History with Economics and BSc in Economics and Economic History. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

How has technology changed the way we live? How have humans managed to raise levels of productivity under a range of different circumstances and in an array of environmental conditions? This course addresses these questions through an exploration of the production and diffusion of knowledge and how this has affected technical change and economic growth in the very long run, from the Middle Ages to modernity.

The course will explore, both theoretically and empirically, how economists and historians have accounted for technical change. Social scientists have for decades tried to parse the respective contributions of capital, technology and labour to economic development. To what extent do the differing roles ascribed to technical change account for divergent interpretations of the key factors in long-run economic development and productivity growth? How can we explain shifts in the locus of technological leadership and dynamism over time?

These themes will be expanded upon throughout the course with case studies drawn from across place and time. We will look closely at paradigm-changing innovations and their economic effects from, for example, the introduction of the heavy plough, the clock and the printing press in the Middle Ages to more recent technologies like steam, railways, telegraphs, electricity and shifts in production technology towards automation.

This course is delivered through a combination of seminars and lectures totalling a minimum of 40 hours across Michaelmas Term and Lent Term.

This year, while we are planning for most seminars to be delivered in-person, it is possible that some or all of this teaching may have to be delivered virtually.

The course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Michaelmas Term and Lent Term.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT and 1 essay in the LT.

Students are also expected to give one presentation to class.

Edgerton, David. The Shock of the Old : Technology and Global History since 1900 (London: Profile, 2008).

Landes, David S. The Unbound Prometheus : Technical Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to Present (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

MacKenzie, Donald A. Knowing Machines : Essays on Technical Change. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998)

Mokyr, Joel. The Gifts of Athena. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).

Rosenberg, Nathan. Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). 

White, Lynn, Medieval Technology and Social Change. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).

Essay (30%, 3000 words) in the LT.
Take-home assessment (70%) in the ST.

The take home exam will cover all topics of the course and take place during the Summer examination period.

The 3,000-word summative essay is an opportunity for students to explore some of the themes of the course in greater depth. More detailed guidance on the essay will be disseminated early in Michaelmas Term.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.