Teaching

Lecture

• “A Short Introduction to Economic History: From 10,000 BCE to the Present” (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs)
• Description: Today we face many economic problems. How do we help less developed parts of the world to improve global living standards? What can we do to reduce rapidly growing levels of inequality? And how can we make our economies compatible with the need to prevent environmental degradation? To answer such questions, we must look to history to understand how the world economy has got to be where it is today. This course will provide an introduction to economic development from the initial emergence of settled agriculture to current debates about the impact of automation and sustainable development. We will examine themes including demography, agriculture, technology, colonialism and development policies and engage with major topics including the Great and Little Divergences, the Industrial Revolutions, the Great Depression and the World Wars. While the course will primarily focus on Western Europe, we will also examine Eastern Europe, the Americas, East Asia and Africa.

Advanced Seminar:

• “The Great Divergence. Economic Development and Stagnation in Preindustrial Western Europe and East Asia (BA)” (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs)
• Description: Why was western Europe, rather than any other part of the world, the first region to industrialise and experience modern economic growth? This is the question that lies at the heart of debate over The Great Divergence, Pomeranz’s seminal work of 2000 which argued that geographical chance, rather than institutional or cultural differences, explains the dramatic gap in wealth which emerged between Europe and the rest of the world in the nineteenth century. In the last two decades, multiple explanations have been put forward centred on agricultural systems, incentives for technological innovations, state formation, warfare, colonialism, and culture. In this course, we will explore a wide range of these interpretations within a comparative framework comparing the two ends of the Eurasian landmass and taking a long-time span between c.1000 and c.1800. We will discuss important topics in economic history including demography, capital- and labour-intensive paths of development, agricultural involution, market integration, proto-industrialisation, consumer cultures, Atlantic slavery, fiscal-military states and technological change. By the end of the course, you will have an overview of many key debates in pre-industrial economic history and have thought deeply about the deep roots of today’s global economy

Research Seminar

• Research Seminar on Medieval Economic History (PD Dr. Tanja Skambraks & Jun-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs)
• Description: The research seminar offers an insight into the latest research on medieval economic and social history in an international comparative perspective. Researchers from Great Britain and the German-speaking countries will present their findings and topics for discussion. Please find the programme here.

Proseminar:

• “An Age of Crisis?: Famine, Plague and the Transformation of Late Medieval Europe” (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs)
• Description: In this course, we will analyse the “Age of Crisis” in the fourteenth century and assess the credibility of the claims made about its effects found in the secondary literature. We will engage with primary sources, using a range of materials including chronicles, legislation, court records, letters, quantitative data, images, and literature. We will also draw on an array of methodological approaches ranging from close readings of texts to the interpretation of graphs and tables. By the end of the course, you will have gained a good understanding of key subjects in medieval history and have thought more broadly about what drives processes of historical continuity and change.

Advanced Seminar:

• “Women in Economic History (BA)” (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs & Verena Weller)
• Description: Gender equality in employment is a vital issue today. Despite advances made in recent decades, 2.4 billion women globally of working age are not afforded the same economic rights as men, and in Germany, women on average earn 18% less than men do. This course seeks to understand the factors that both promote and inhibit female economic activity, by examining historical societies throughout Europe and North America. In what spheres were women able to operate? What impact did patriarchal legal, cultural and political structures have on female activity? How far did industrialisation and new technologies change women’s work? And how can we observe and quantify women’s economic contributions with the fragmentary and biased historical sources available?

Research seminar:

• Forschungsseminar (Oberseminar): Research Seminar on Medieval Economic History (PD Dr. Tanja Skambraks & Jun-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs)
• Description: The research seminar offers an insight into the latest research on medieval economic and social history in an international comparative perspective. Researchers from Great Britain, France and the German-speaking countries will present their findings and topics for discussion. The seminar will be held in English.

Proseminar:

• “Making a Living in Late Medieval England” (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs & Nina Schall)
• Description: The need to make a living is a universal feature of life today and the same is true of the past. However, the nature of gaining an income is highly dependent on the specific features of an economy and society, including educational opportunities, social norms, distributions of political power, levels of urbanisation and market structures. In this course, we will consider these issues for late medieval England. This course will examine a range of different social groups in a variety of economic sectors. We will consider incomes gained in agriculture, manufacturing, and services, and examine the experiences of lords, peasants, townsmen, merchants, lawyers, sex workers, soldiers, and paupers. We will draw on an array of primary sources including laws, accounts, court records, quantitative data and poems. By the end of the course, you will have gained an overview of a range of topics in late medieval history and have thought more deeply about the nature of earning and work.

Advanced Seminar:

• “The Great Divergence. Economic Development and Stagnation in Preindustrial Western Europe and East Asia (BA)” (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alex Spike Gibbs)
• Description: Why was western Europe, rather than any other part of the world, the first region to industrialise and experience modern economic growth? This is the question that lies at the heart of debate over “The Great Divergence”, Pomeranz’s seminal work of 2000 which argued that geographical chance, rather than institutional or cultural differences, explains the dramatic gap in wealth which emerged between Europe and the rest of the world in the nineteenth century. In the last two decades, multiple explanations have been put forward centred on agricultural systems, incentives for technological innovations, state formation, warfare, colonialism, and culture. In this course, we will explore a wide range of these interpretations within a comparative framework comparing the two ends of the Eurasian landmass and taking a long-time span between c.1000 and c.1800.