The course begins with an introduction to the central problem of organizing an economy and allocating resources, emphasizing an overview of the market system in a private enterprise economy. Demand and supply analysis and the elements of long-run competitive equilibrium are developed, followed by an analysis of the foundations of consumer behavior that determine market supply and demand. Students are presented with a systematic method of reading texts and producing arguments about them by learning first to summarize complex arguments, second to synthesize a series of separate but related arguments, third to analyze arguments for the problems they do and do not address and finally, to build their own arguments on a topic. The primary focus of 76-101 is on literacy. Students are introduced to arguments and positions regarding the role such practices play in representing and building knowledge.
Emphasis is on leading themes of world history, rather than a detailed chronological narrative.
Eight principal civilizations or cultural traditions will provide the basic units for analysis. I to the 1990s with emphasis on how economic, political and social changes during this time shaped the conditions, attitudes and values of present-day America. Subjects discussed in readings and in class include World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the student protest or counter-culture movements, and the rise of the New Right. This course covers a broad sweep of Soviet history from the revolution in 1917 to the turmoil of the present. Spanning more than 70 years of upheaval and transformation, the course examines the October revolution, the ruthless power struggles of the 1920s, the triumph of Stalin, the costly industrialization and collectivization drives, the battle against fascism, and the present attempts at political and economic reform in the 1970s and 1980s.