14.72 Capitalism and Its Critics, Fall 2006

This course examines the implications of economic theories for social and political organization in the context of the historical evolution of industrial societies. Among the authors whose theories will be discussed are Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, and John Kenneth Galbraith. Emphasis will be placed on class discussion of specific texts. Students will be encouraged to ground their views in concrete textual and empirical material and to consider the implications of different arguments for the understanding of personal, political, and economic events today.