HIST 12E

Inequality: History of Money

• Historical Analysis
• Social Analysis

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of the history of money and exploration of the variety of their forms, uses, and behavior. Investigation of relationship of state power, elite interests, monetary media and uses, and financial innovations beginning in the ancient world. Survey of medieval and early modern periods, industrial age, two world wars and era of decolonization, and 21st century with cryptocurrency and meme stocks. Study is guided by theme of inequality. Consideration of how different kinds of monetary media and circulating systems affect the distribution of wealth across any community or society; and how politics, culture, and technology affect this distribution. P/NP or letter grading.