There is, in short, a need to study history from some perspective, highlighting one theme or aspect. There are innumerable possibilities. In this course the perspective is economic. This choice causes us to view events from a perspective different from that of other, more typical, courses in American history. Its plot ignores the great epic of American democratic development and dwells instead on the less familiar ebbs and flows of economic activity.
Technology plays a role as central as political processes play in the typical history course.
Events such as the formation of the Sears, Roebuck Company or the building of the Erie Canal mentioned in passing in other history courses, are focused on in an economic history course. We study history from this perspective because it has an extraordinary power of illumination. This is a broad perspective because it touches more on other perspectives than many of them do. Economists' objective is to understand the forces and institutions that determine mankind's material well being. The economic historian is concerned with determining which methods of doing these things is the most economically efficient.