Marc Flandreau

Current Courses

• ECON0615 - The International Monetary System From Sterling To Cryptocurrency (1720-2020)

  The course will cover the modern evolution of the international monetary system going all the way back to the era when sterling became the leading international currencies. It is arranged thematically and chronologically both. The lessons and readings will introduce students to the principal evolutions of the international monetary system and at the same time, it will give them an understanding of regimes, their mechanics and the geopolitical economies behind systemic shifts. Students need not have an economic background but must be prepared to read about exchange rates (and world politics). Special focus on: The early modern international monetary system. How Amsterdam and London captured the Spanish treasure. Beyond the West (Ottoman Empire, India, China). The Napoleonic wars and the rise of sterling. Hong-Kong: Silver, Opium, and the Recycling of Surpluses. The emergence of the Gold Standard. Bimetallism: The US election of 1796. Sterling and Key Currencies before WWI. The First World War and the origins of dollar supremacy. When the dollar displaced sterling (1920s). The collapse of the international gold standard (1930s). The Bretton Woods System. The rise and rise of the US dollar. Currency competition (Dollar, Euro, Yuan Renminbi). The meaning of cryptocurrencies.

  ECON0615401 ( Syllabus )

• ECON0625 - Introduction To Business, Economic And Financial History

  Business, Economic and Financial History plays a crucial role today in informing the views of business leaders, policy makers, reformers and public intellectuals. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to acquire a command of the key elements of this important intellectual field. The seminar format enables us to do this engagingly through reading and discussion. Students acquire a knowledge of the fundamental texts and controversies. Each meeting focuses on one foundational debate and provides a means to be up to date with the insights gleaned from rigorous economic history. We will examine twelve important debates and students will be asked to write a paper. The debates will include such questions as: What is growth and how can it be measured? What caused the "great divergence" in long run development among countries? How can we "understand" the rise and fall of slavery and its long shadow today? What is globalization and when did it begin? Did the Gold Standard and interwar fiscal and monetary policy orthodoxy cause the great depression? How can we explain the evolution of inequality in the very long run?

  ECON0625401 ( Syllabus )

• HIST3710 - Introduction To Business, Economic And Financial History

  Business, Economic and Financial History plays a crucial role today in informing the views of business leaders, policy makers, reformers and public intellectuals. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to acquire a command of the key elements of this important intellectual field. The seminar format enables us to do this engagingly through reading and discussion. Students acquire a knowledge of the fundamental texts and controversies. Each meeting focuses on one foundational debate and provides a means to be up to date with the insights gleaned from rigorous economic history. We will examine twelve important debates and students will be asked to write a paper. The debates will include such questions as: What is growth and how can it be measured? What caused the "great divergence" in long run development among countries? How can we "understand" the rise and fall of slavery and its long shadow today? What is globalization and when did it begin? Did the Gold Standard and interwar fiscal and monetary policy orthodoxy cause the great depression? How can we explain the evolution of inequality in the very long run?

  HIST3710401 ( Syllabus )

• HIST3965 - The International Monetary System From Sterling To Cryptocurrency (1720-2020)

  The course will cover the modern evolution of the international monetary system going all the way back to the era when sterling became the leading international currencies. It is arranged thematically and chronologically both. The lessons and readings will introduce students to the principal evolutions of the international monetary system and at the same time, it will give them an understanding of regimes, their mechanics and the geopolitical economies behind systemic shifts. Students need not have an economic background but must be prepared to read about exchange rates (and world politics). Special focus on: The early modern international monetary system. How Amsterdam and London captured the Spanish treasure. Beyond the West (Ottoman Empire, India, China). The Napoleonic wars and the rise of sterling. Hong-Kong: Silver, Opium, and the Recycling of Surpluses. The emergence of the Gold Standard. Bimetallism: The US election of 1796. Sterling and Key Currencies before WWI. The First World War and the origins of dollar supremacy. When the dollar displaced sterling (1920s). The collapse of the international gold standard (1930s). The Bretton Woods System. The rise and rise of the US dollar. Currency competition (Dollar, Euro, Yuan Renminbi). The meaning of cryptocurrencies.

  HIST3965401 ( Syllabus )

Past Courses

• AFRC3700 - Abolitionism: A Global History

  This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.*

• ECON0615 - Hist of Int'l Monetary System

  The course will cover the modern evolution of the international monetary system going all the way back to the era when sterling became the leading international currencies. It is arranged thematically and chronologically both. The lessons and readings will introduce students to the principal evolutions of the international monetary system and at the same time, it will give them an understanding of regimes, their mechanics and the geopolitical economies behind systemic shifts. Students need not have an economic background but must be prepared to read about exchange rates (and world politics). Special focus on: The early modern international monetary system. How Amsterdam and London captured the Spanish treasure. Beyond the West (Ottoman Empire, India, China). The Napoleonic wars and the rise of sterling. Hong-Kong: Silver, Opium, and the Recycling of Surpluses. The emergence of the Gold Standard. Bimetallism: The US election of 1796. Sterling and Key Currencies before WWI. The First World War and the origins of dollar supremacy. When the dollar displaced sterling (1920s). The collapse of the international gold standard (1930s). The Bretton Woods System. The rise and rise of the US dollar. Currency competition (Dollar, Euro, Yuan Renminbi). The meaning of cryptocurrencies.

• ECON0620 - Financial Meltdown

  Economic history is increasingly recognized as a crucial source of policy advice and is invoked with growing frequency in public debates. In particular, the subprime crisis in 2008 and after has generated a demand for "historical perspective" that would improve the understanding of the causes of financial turmoil and facilitate the prevention of comparable catastrophes. This course begins with a review of the principal features of the subprime crisis of 2008 and asks, so to speak, "how did we get there?" It answers by providing historical insights that shed light on crucial aspects of financial disasters. This is a history course, engaging with topics pertaining to economics, law and politics (national and international). Students with diverse backgrounds are expected to benefit from this course through acquiring a concrete knowledge of the historical evolution of fundamental institutions of financial capitalism. Ultimately, students enrolling in this course are expected to achieve proficiency in historically informed discussion of the mechanisms that were played out in the subprime crisis and beyond.

• ECON0625 - Business, Econ& Financial Hist

  Business, Economic and Financial History plays a crucial role today in informing the views of business leaders, policy makers, reformers and public intellectuals. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to acquire a command of the key elements of this important intellectual field. The seminar format enables us to do this engagingly through reading and discussion. Students acquire a knowledge of the fundamental texts and controversies. Each meeting focuses on one foundational debate and provides a means to be up to date with the insights gleaned from rigorous economic history. We will examine twelve important debates and students will be asked to write a paper. The debates will include such questions as: What is growth and how can it be measured? What caused the "great divergence" in long run development among countries? How can we "understand" the rise and fall of slavery and its long shadow today? What is globalization and when did it begin? Did the Gold Standard and interwar fiscal and monetary policy orthodoxy cause the great depression? How can we explain the evolution of inequality in the very long run?

• HIST1731 - Financial Meltdown

  Economic history is increasingly recognized as a crucial source of policy advice and is invoked with growing frequency in public debates. In particular, the subprime crisis in 2008 and after has generated a demand for "historical perspective" that would improve the understanding of the causes of financial turmoil and facilitate the prevention of comparable catastrophes. This course begins with a review of the principal features of the subprime crisis of 2008 and asks, so to speak, "how did we get there?" It answers by providing historical insights that shed light on crucial aspects of financial disasters. This is a history course, engaging with topics pertaining to economics, law and politics (national and international). Students with diverse backgrounds are expected to benefit from this course through acquiring a concrete knowledge of the historical evolution of fundamental institutions of financial capitalism. Ultimately, students enrolling in this course are expected to achieve proficiency in historically informed discussion of the mechanisms that were played out in the subprime crisis and beyond.

• HIST2703 - Decades of Extremes

  The rise of Fascism in Italy, the Russian Revolution, anti-colonial struggles in India, the New Deal in the United States, the Spanish Civil War, and the emergence of populist Juan Perón in Argentina. These events – as distinct as they are – all responded to the crisis of the global economy following World War I. These were decades of ideological extremes: liberal democracy pitted against fascism, socialism versus capitalism, imperialist expansion in some parts of the world and struggles for self-determination in others. What did the world look like in 1917, and why did it give rise to such revolutionary politics? This course studies the ideological conflicts and economic crises of the interwar decades (1917-1945) through firsthand accounts produced by intellectuals, economists, dictators, and ordinary citizens. We will read from the 1917 Soviet Constitution, George Orwell’s personal account of the Spanish Civil War, and Mussolini’s writings to understand the revolutionary visions at stake. We will debate alongside John M. Keynes and Friedrich Hayek to engage one of the driving questions to arise in these years: what is the role of the state in economic life? We explore the policy experimentation that arose in response to this crippling economic situation, from the New Deal in the United States to the rise of populism in Latin America. Finally, we consider how these interwar struggles explain the outbreak of World War II, an extreme experience of totalitarianism, destruction, and genocide. The key concepts we explore – fascism, imperialism, protectionism, capitalism, socialism, authoritarianism, liberalism – are of enduring relevance. What lessons – if any – can we learn from these interwar decades of extremes?

• HIST2706 - Wastes of War

  This seminar examines the human and environmental consequences of violent conflict from the South African War at the beginning of the 20th century to the War on Terror. War violently transforms the social and physical environment. War reshuffles ideologies, reimagines futures and reshapes alliances, destroys bodies, spaces, societies, habitats, ecosystems and cultures. And of course, there’s no war that doesn’t produce a whole host of wastes, and as a result, inspires a multitude of strategies to combat and eradicate them. In this course, we approach war as an engine of destruction and transformation rather than as politics gone awry. The wastes of war will serve as our focal point as we study the new worlds (technological, social and environmental) that war not merely leaves in its wake but systematically generates. Critically examining two key categories – “waste” and “war” in tandem, we discover how together they fundamentally restructure our social, cultural and natural worlds in unexpected ways.

• HIST3600 - Human Rights Age of Revolution

  This seminar is designed as both as an introduction to the question of the origins of the idea of human rights and as an opportunity to develop a sustained research project related to the Age of Revolutions in Europe, the Americas (North or South), or Caribbean, mid-18th century to 1848. Topics to be discussed include: the relationship and tension in Enlightenment thought between equality and liberty, the idea of “the rights of man” and its exclusions, the emergence of abolitionism in the context of slave societies, the roots of feminism, the problem of the poor and the question of social and economic rights, rights and national self-determination, and left- and right-wing critiques of rights language. Primary source readings will range from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, to 18th-century slave codes, to the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and Jeremy Bentham. Secondary source readings will introduce students to interpretative problems in thinking about human rights in the context of the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions. Throughout the seminar, emphasis will also be placed on the development of a historical research project, including framing a question, building a bibliography, analyzing various kinds of sources, constructing an effective outline, and writing an argument-driven and well substantiated seminar paper. **Note for History Majors and Minors: if your research paper addresses a Latin American/Caribbean or US topic, then you may use this course to fulfill that particular geographic requirement.

• HIST3601 - The Horse in World History

  Around 8000 years ago, communities in the western part of the Eurasian steppe began to breed and ride horses. This process of domestication made horses central participants in human history. The domestication of the horse transformed military tactics, human mobility and communication, agriculture, and entertainment. Humans have transformed the horse as well, producing about 200 breeds with unique characteristics matched to human goals. This course traces the history of equine-human relations across the globe, using the horse as a focal point to think about animal-human relations in societies ranging from prehistoric Europe to the Spanish conquests of Latin America. Our inquiry will address not only the place of horses in these particular phases of world history, but also by extension the debates about human-animal relations in our society today. The Major or Minor geographic requirement fulfilled by this course will be determined by an individual student’s research paper topic.

• HIST3700 - Abolitionism: A Global History

  This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.*

• HIST3701 - Capitalism and Humanitarianism

  Reviewing David Brion Davis’ Problem of Slavery in Western Culture for the New York Review of Books in 1967, the great ancient historian Moses Finley concluded that Davis’s book was “one of the most important to have been published on the subject of slavery in modern times.” Yet he found the book inconclusive on the “decisive question” of why slavery was finally abolished in the West. “Nothing is more difficult perhaps than to explain how and why, or why not, a new moral perception becomes effective in action,” Finley wrote. Almost 50 years after this statement was made, the complicated processes that are being played out at the heart of capitalism, mobilizing both ethical issues and the pursuit of profit are still imperfectly understood, yet more fascinating than ever. This course’s working hypothesis is that, from a better understanding of the entanglements of capitalism and humanitarianism a better understanding of the nature of the “material civilization” can be achieved. For this purpose, the course does provide a multi-pronged approach including sessions discussing analytical arguments about the reasons for the entanglements of capitalism and humanitarianism, sessions devoted to historical turning points and sessions devoted to case studies and the exploration of specific mechanisms whereby capitalism and humanitarianism connect with one another. I wish in particular to try and make students aware of the problem of “quality” and its social construction, which is found at the heart of both capitalism and humanitarianism. By awakening them to this question, I also hope to provide an engaging way to understand the importance of economics in cultural history. Last, while the course will make verbal references to work on more recent periods, the focus is on a time frame that ends with World War I. This seems warranted given that the purpose is to unpack the entanglements of finance and humanitarianism “as they got intertwined.” Nota Bene, some a few non-mandatory readings in French.

• HIST3710 - Business, Econ& Financial Hist

  Business, Economic and Financial History plays a crucial role today in informing the views of business leaders, policy makers, reformers and public intellectuals. This seminar provides students with the opportunity to acquire a command of the key elements of this important intellectual field. The seminar format enables us to do this engagingly through reading and discussion. Students acquire a knowledge of the fundamental texts and controversies. Each meeting focuses on one foundational debate and provides a means to be up to date with the insights gleaned from rigorous economic history. We will examine twelve important debates and students will be asked to write a paper. The debates will include such questions as: What is growth and how can it be measured? What caused the "great divergence" in long run development among countries? How can we "understand" the rise and fall of slavery and its long shadow today? What is globalization and when did it begin? Did the Gold Standard and interwar fiscal and monetary policy orthodoxy cause the great depression? How can we explain the evolution of inequality in the very long run?

• HIST3960 - Information and History

  This course provides a perspective on the role of information as a historical actor. Moving beyond common narratives of the progress of the information economy driven by technological factors, the course underscores the significance of what may be called the political economies of information. We will approach major works, dealing with the historical importance of information (Foucault, Cohn, Habermas) and simultaneously engages with the history of institutions to store and circulate information. We will emphasize the importance of value (social, political, economic) which is at the heart of information gathering and producing. In particular, we will discuss the rise and fall of institutions to store and circulate information. We will study the importance of information in historical processes such as imperialism and colonization, state building, propaganda, the Enlightenment, as well as the informational aspects of the rise of global NGOs and international organization, police and spying. Information may be accumulated or lost; it can be safeguarded or debased; it can confer power or undermine it. In the age of fake news, these are issues worthy of a closer interest.

• HIST3965 - Hist of Int'l Monetary System

  The course will cover the modern evolution of the international monetary system going all the way back to the era when sterling became the leading international currencies. It is arranged thematically and chronologically both. The lessons and readings will introduce students to the principal evolutions of the international monetary system and at the same time, it will give them an understanding of regimes, their mechanics and the geopolitical economies behind systemic shifts. Students need not have an economic background but must be prepared to read about exchange rates (and world politics). Special focus on: The early modern international monetary system. How Amsterdam and London captured the Spanish treasure. Beyond the West (Ottoman Empire, India, China). The Napoleonic wars and the rise of sterling. Hong-Kong: Silver, Opium, and the Recycling of Surpluses. The emergence of the Gold Standard. Bimetallism: The US election of 1796. Sterling and Key Currencies before WWI. The First World War and the origins of dollar supremacy. When the dollar displaced sterling (1920s). The collapse of the international gold standard (1930s). The Bretton Woods System. The rise and rise of the US dollar. Currency competition (Dollar, Euro, Yuan Renminbi). The meaning of cryptocurrencies.

• HIST6700 - Transregional History

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional History

• HIST6710 - Trans Reg Economic History

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional Economic History

• HIST6720 - Trans Reg Gender History

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional Gender History

• HIST6730 - Transreg Intellectual History

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional Intellectual History

• HIST6740 - Trans Reg Religious History

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in Transregional Religious History

• HIST6750 - Trans Reg Race & Slavery

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in History of Transregional Race and Slavery

• HIST6760 - Trans Reg Nationalisms

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in the History of Transregional Nationalisms

• HIST6770 - Trans Reg War & Diplomacy

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in the History of Transregional War and Diplomacy

• HIST6780 - Transreg Migration & Diasporas

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in the History of Transregional Migrations and Diasporas

• HIST6790 - Trans R Empires & Colonialisms

  Reading and discussion course on selected topics in the History of Transregional Empires and Colonialisms

• LALS3700 - Abolitionism: A Global History

  This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.*

• PPE3999 - Independent Study

  Student arranges with a faculty member to pursue a research project on a suitable topic. For more information about research and setting up independent studies, visit: https://ppe.sas.upenn.edu/study/curriculum/independent-studies

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Former Levi’s CEO on Revitalizing a Brand — and the Right Way to Wash Jeans, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/23/2024
• Why Is Financial Literacy Important? | Olivia S. Mitchell, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/23/2024
• From Amazon to Uber: Why Platform Accountability Requires a Holistic Approach, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/22/2024
• Can Intrapreneurship Help Close the Racial Wealth Gap?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/22/2024
• CJ Handron, Co-founder of Diamond Kinetics, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/17/2024
• The Impact of AI on Financial Literacy | Michael Roberts, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/16/2024
• Why Staying in Your 401(k) After Retirement Makes Sense, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/15/2024
• How Social Insurance Drives Credit Card Debt, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/15/2024
• Can Intrapreneurship Help Close the Racial Wealth Gap?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/12/2024
• Understanding the Value of Networks for Mothers Reentering the Workforce, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/11/2024