The Past Speaks

The Business History Conference has posted a fantastic directory of syllabi of business history courses online.  I’ve cut and pasted the section devoted to Canadian business history courses below.

• Catherine Briggs, University of Waterloo
  Canadian Business History (2012)
• Ben Forster, University of Western Ontario
  Select Topics in Business History (Canada) (2009) [seminar]
• Peter V. Krats, University of Western Ontario
  Northern Enterprise: Canadian Business and Labour History (2011)
• Joe Martin, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
  Using History to Make Strategic Choices (Canadian Business History) (2011)
• Robin Neill, University of Prince Edward Island
  Canadian Economic History (2011)
  Capitalism in Canada (2012)
• Andrew D. Smith, Laurentian University
  The Entrepreneur and Canadian Business History (2008)
• Graham D. Taylor, Trent University
  Canadian Business History in a Global Context (2012)
• Jeffery Vacante, University of Western Ontario
  Introduction to the History of Business and Commerce (2011)
• Keith Fleming, University of Western Ontario
  Entrepreneurship in the United States and Canada since 1800 (2011)

I have enjoyed teaching these students who are extremely interested in American history. For the vast majority of these students, this module was their first exposure to the academic study of the history of the United States. Many students have a well developed, if somewhat inaccurate, knowledge of particular aspects of US history, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, two topics that are taught at A-levels.

The students appeared to enjoy the seminars, which were based on a mixture of traditional seminar readings (i.e., scholarly articles and books) and podcasts. They also appear to have liked my lecture style. Although attendance did decline after I began placing videos of the lectures on Moodle in week 3, I intend to use Echo360 lecture capture next year because many of the students who have impeccable attendance records said that they found it useful to be able to watch videos of the lectures when revising for the exam.

I think that students got a great deal from the essay coursework. Almost all students said that this was the first time they were required to base their coursework on primary sources.

In October, I asked the students to follow the New York Times Disunion blog, which is about the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War. (There are references to the blog in the Module Guide). My intention was that we would discuss recent blog posts each week. However, it became clear to me after a few weeks that the blog was assuming too much prior knowledge about the Civil War for us to have a profitable discussion.

Andrew Smith

AS: At this university,  as in most British universities, the lecturers are required to write up a statement at the end of the academic year assessing how well each class went. Here is the statement I wrote about my History of Globalisation module. 

It has been a tremendous pleasure to deliver this module to our first-year history students. After the final exam, several students told me that they regarded this module as “superb” and a radically different form of historical education than what they had experienced at A-level.

One student said that she now follows business and political news very closely and that her entire perspective on politics, economy, and the media had been changed by this module. Previously, she hadn’t known what a Chancellor of the Exchequer was. I was extremely happy to hear this remark, especially as it came from one of the stronger students.

In a sense, I was very lucky in that there were many “teachable moments” in the news this year that I could reference in my lectures. (This is the silver lining of the current economic crisis, I suppose). These references allowed me to point out parallels between contemporary developments and the economic-historical phenomena that are the core themes of this module. I certainly believe that the crisis in the Eurozone made my students more interested in the history of the gold standard than otherwise would have been the case. Students also seemed very interested in learning about the Great Depression of the  the 1930s and the lost generation they produced.

In our weekly seminars, I always tried to keep the discussion focused on the assigned readings, rather than tangential issues related to present-day politics. However, I noticed that there were vigorous discussions on the module Facebook page about contemporary issues (such as the future of Greece in the Eurozone) in which students were citing and applying concepts taken from the seminar readings.  Students will be able to apply the knowledge gained from this module in their future modules. These discussions were typically on Monday evening. I required the students to watch a documentary on the lives and times of the economists Keynes and Hayek. I was very happy to see from Facebook that a student shared a link to the online version of this documentary with friends who are not students at this university. In the last few months of the module, I enjoyed watching the students’ passionate debates about the merits of such things as the welfare state and the WTO. I was also happy to see that the students could discuss emotionally charged topics such as the legacies of Empire or the economic history of the slave trade in a respectful and scholarly manner. That’s excellent.

My experience is that most of the seminar readings I set at the start of the year were appropriate. They generated good debates.  A few were perhaps over the heads of these first-year students, so I plan to modify the reading list next year.

This module embodies the principle of research-led teaching. Several of my past and forthcoming publications deal with globalisation. I didn’t assign any of my existing publications as seminar readings this year because they aren’t directly relevant to the core themes of this module. However, by January 2013, when I offer this module again, I should have publications in print that are directly relevant to the core themes of the module and thus suitable for inclusion in the reading list for the seminars.

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAS
SENATE ROOM, 1st FLOOR, SENATE HOUSE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
FRIDAY 29 JUNE 2012
The conference organisers wish to acknowledge the support of the Canadian High Commission and the Canada-UK Colloquium. Attendance is free of charge. To register please email Dr Tony McCulloch (tony.mcculloch@londoncanadianstudies.org) by 25 June 2012.
9.30 am Registration and refreshments

10.00 am Welcome by Professor Iwan Morgan, Institute for the Study of the Americas

10.15 am Keynote address
His Excellency Gordon Campbell, the High Commissioner for Canada to the UK
“Canada, China and the Asia-Pacific region – Opportunities and Challenges”

11.15 am Refreshments

11.30 am Session 2
Joseph Caron, Former Canadian ambassador to China, Japan and India & Asia consultant, Vancouver

“Canada in the Asia-Pacific – how did we get there, and where are we going?”
Discussant: James Brazier, IHS Jane’s intelligence group, London

12.45 pm Lunch

1.30 pm Session 3
Jennifer Welsh, Professor in International Relations, Somerville College, University of Oxford
“Canada’s international policy – the Asia-Pacific region in its global context”
Discussant: Tony McCulloch, Associate Fellow, Institute for the Study of the Americas, London

2.45 pm Refreshments

3.15pm Session 4
Nicolas Maclean CMG, Chief Executive, MWM (Asia) and former Senior Fellow for International Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London

“Canada and the Asia-Pacific – the business perspective”
Discussant: Andrew Halper, Head of CMS UK China Group, CMS Cameron McKenna LLP

4.30pm – End of conference