How Economics Can Strengthen the Teaching of U.S. History

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How Economics Can Strengthen the Teaching of U.S. History

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Title: How Economics Can Strengthen the Teaching of U.S. History

1
How Economics Can Strengthen the Teaching of U.S.
History

Council for Economic Education
March 21, 2009
Mark C. Schug, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

2
Overview

Problems teaching history
How economic thinking might help
Features of Focus Understanding Economics in
U.S. History
Lesson 5 Demonstration

3
Problems Teaching U.S. History

Schools rely on U.S. history to teach
Our national identify
An academic understanding of our past
But, history teaching is criticized as being
Boring in content and pedagogy
Superficial
Trivial
Remote

4
Problems Teaching U.S. History

Students usually take 6 semesters of U.S.
history
Grade 5 2 semesters
Grade 8 2 semesters
Grade 11 2 semesters
Yet, national tests show that achievement in
history is low.

5
U.S. History Achievement Levels 1994, 2001, 2006
NAEP
Level Grade 4 1994 2001 2006 Grade 4 1994 2001 2006 Grade 4 1994 2001 2006 Grade 8 1994 2001 2006 Grade 8 1994 2001 2006 Grade 8 1994 2001 2006 Grade 12 1994 2001 2006 Grade 12 1994 2001 2006 Grade 12 1994 2001 2006
At Adv. 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1
At or Above Prof. 17 18 18 14 17 17 11 11 13
At or Above Basic 64 66 70 61 62 65 43 43 47
Below Basic 36 34 30 39 38 35 57 57 53
6
Civics Achievement Levels 1994, 2001, NAEP
Level GRADE 4 1998 2006 GRADE 4 1998 2006 GRADE 8 1998 2006 GRADE 8 1998 2006 GRADE 12 1998 2006 GRADE 12 1998 2006
At Advanced 2 2 2 2 4 5
At or Above Proficient 23 24 22 22 26 27
At or Above Basic 69 73 70 70 65 66
Below Basic 31 27 30 30 35 34
7
Economics Achievement Levels 2006, NAEP
Level Grade 12
At Advanced 3
At or Above Proficient 42
At or Above Basic 79
Below Basic 21
8
What Can Economics Contribute?

Economics stresses the idea that all people make
choices.
But, they dont know at the time what the
consequences of their choices will be.

9
Individual Choices

All social phenomena emerge from the choices that
individuals make in response to expected costs
and benefits to themselves.
Paul Heyne

10
John Maynard Keynes

The inevitable never happens. It is always the
unexpected.

11
Who Would Have Predicted in 1980?

The collapse of the Soviet Union.
The reunification of Germany.
Nelson Mandela becoming President of South
Africa.

12
Who Would Have Predicted in 1980?

Economic stagnation in Japan in the 1990s.
Record U.S. economic expansion in the 1990s.
An attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
All-out war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

13
Who Would Have Predicted in 1980?

The financial collapse of 2008 and the 2009.
An African American President of the United
States in 2009.

14
They Didnt Know How It Would All Turn Out

In writing history or biography, you must
remember that nothing was on track. Things could
have gone any way at any point. As soon as you
say was it seems to fix an event in the past.
But nobody ever lived in the past, only the
present.

TALKING HISTORY WITH David McCullough Immersed
in Facts, The Better to Imagine Harry Truman's
Life By ESTHER B. FEIN Published August 12,
1992 New York Times
15
They Didnt Know How It Would Turn Out

The difference is that it was their present.
They were just as alive and full of ambition,
fear, hope and all the emotions of life. And,
just like us, they didnt know how it would all
turn out.
The challenge is to get the reader student
beyond the thinking that things had to be the way
they turned out and to see the range of
possibilities of how it could have been
otherwise.
David McCullough

16
The Economic Way of Thinking

Focus Understanding Economics in U.S. History
introduces students to the economic way of
thinking.
It stresses how people at the time were making
choices in response to anticipated benefits and
costs.
This approach allows students to be
present-minded about the past.

17
Introduction to the Economic Way of Thinking
18
Guide to Economic Reasoning

Focus Understanding Economics in U.S. History
uses six principles of economic reasoning to
solve mysteries in U.S. history.

19
Guide to Economic Reasoning

1. People choose.
2. Peoples choices involve costs.
3. People respond to incentives in predictable
ways.
4. People create economic systems that influence
individual choices and incentives.
5. People gain when they trade voluntarily.
6. Peoples choices have consequences that lie in
the future.

20
Why Did the Colonists Fight
21
Why Did the Colonists Fight?

At first glance the American Revolution seemed
inevitable
Sugar Act in 1764
Stamp Act in 1765
Tea Act in 1763
Neither side was willing to back down.

22
The Colonists Were Safe

Colonists lived in relative safety due to British
military protection.
Royal Navy protected American shipping.

23
The Colonists Were Safe

The British spent heavily to protect the colonies
from French forces and their Indians allies.
The French and Indian War lasted from 1755-1763.

24
The Colonists Were Prosperous

By todays standards colonial life was rough. But
by the standards of their own time, colonists
enjoyed a high quality of life.
Growth of production
Lived longer than most
Average incomes were as high or higher than in
England
Better educated

25
The Colonists Were Prosperous

Even today, relatively few countries generate
average income levels that approach the earnings
of free Americans on the eve of the Revolution.
(Walton and Rockhoff, 2002)

26
The Colonists Were Free

The colonies were a long way from Britain.
Transportation and communications were slow.
English authorities were inclined to leave the
colonists more or less alone.

27
The Colonists Were Free

Samuel Eliot Morison (1965) writes
British subjects in America were then the
freest people in the world.
Practiced in self government
Freedom of speech, press and assembly.
The hand of government rested lightly on
Americans.

28
Lesson 7 Mystery

The British colonies in America grew and
prospered. Since the colonists were economically
successful under British rule, why did they seek
independence?
Why would colonists fight a revolution against
Great Britain, one of the worlds most powerful
nations and, in many ways, when it was safe,
prosperous and free?

29
Apply the Guide to Economic Reasoning

1. People choose.
2. Peoples choices involve costs.
3. People respond to incentives in predictable
ways.
4. People create economic systems that influence
individual choices and incentives.
5. People gain when they trade voluntarily.
6. Peoples choices have consequences that lie in
the future.

30
People Choose

The colonists decided that fighting the
Revolution offered the best combination of
benefits and costs they could attain.

31
Peoples Choices Involve Costs

Questions of cost loomed large.
They risked losing
Guaranteed market for some goods.
Subsidies and bounties.
Military protection

32
People Respond to Incentives

After 1763, new taxes and regulations became more
restrictive.
Sugar Act
Stamp Act
Tea Act
These actions provided an incentive to fight.

33
People Create Economic Systems

The Navigation Acts (1651, 1660, 1663) changed
the rules of the game.
Britain was more willing to enforce the rules
resulting in higher prices for colonists.

34
People Create Economic Systems

Trade was allowed only in American or British
vessels.
All imports were through British ports.

35
People Create Economic Systems

Enumerated goods (tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo,
rice, and naval stores) from the colonies could
only be shipped to England.
Townsend Act placed new taxes on tea, glass and
paper.

36
People Create Economic Systems

Agricultural land was very important to many
colonists.
Quebec Act of 1774
Enlarged the size of Quebec.
Destroyed western land claims of Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Virginia.

37
People Gain from Voluntary Trade

Trade was very important to the colonial economy.
Colonial producers saw Britains tightening
mercantile policy as an obstacle to free trade.

38
Future Consequences

Changes in British policy increased the risk that
the future would not be as safe, prosperous and
free as the past had been.
Economic growth was in doubt.
Self-government was threatened.

39
Solve the Mystery

The colonists fought the Revolution because
benefits they had obtained - - especially
prosperity and self-government - - were
threatened.
The prospect of fighting to secure these benefits
for the future outweighed the other choices.

40
Table of Contents
41
Table of Contents

Unit 1 Three Worlds Meet
1. The New World Was an Old World
2. Property Rights Among North American Indians

42
Table of Contents

Unit Two Colonization and Settlement
3. Why Do Economies Grow?
4. Understanding the Colonial Economy in a Global
Context
5. Indentured Servitude Why Sell Yourself into
Bondage?
6. Specialization and Trade in the Thirteen
Colonies

43
Table of Contents

Unit Three Revolution and the New Nation
7. The Costs and Benefits of American
Independence
8. Problems under the Articles of Confederation
9. The U.S. Constitution Rules of the Game

44
Table of Contents

Unit Four Expansion and Reform
10. Rising Living Standards in the New Nation
11. How Did Cotton Become King?
12. Francis Cabot Lowell and the New England
Textile Industry

45
Table of Contents

13. Improving Transportation
14. Investing in American Growth
15. Why Did the Indians of the Great Plains
Invite White Americans into Their Land?
16. Andrew Jackson and the Second Bank of the
United States
17. Free the Enslaved and Avoid the War

46
Table of Contents

Unit Five Civil War and Reconstruction
18. Why Did the South Secede?
19. Economic Analysis of the Civil War

47
Table of Contents

Unit Six The Development of the Industrial
United States
20. Was Free Land a Good Deal?
21. The Changing U.S. Economy
22. The Demand for Immigrants
23. Bigger Is Better The Economics of Mass
Production

48
Table of Contents

24. Industrial Entrepreneurs or Robber Barons?
25. The Economic Effects of the 19th Century
Monopoly
26. Could the U.S. Economy Have Grown Without the
Railroads?
27. Free Silver or a Cross of Gold

49
Table of Contents

Unit Seven The Emergence of Modern America
28. Money Panics and the Establishment of the
Federal Reserve System
29. Who Should Make the Food Safe?

50
Table of Contents

Unit Eight The Great Depression and World War II
30. Whatdunit? The Great Depression Mystery
31. Did the New Deal Help or Harm Recovery?

51
Table of Contents

32. We Shall Not Be Moved
33. When the Boys Came Marching Home
34. Women in the US Workforce

52
Table of Contents

Unit Nine Postwar United States
35. The Economics of Racial Discrimination
36. The No-Good Seventies

53
Table of Contents

Unit Ten Contemporary United States
37. The Hispanic Americans
38. The Knowledge- and Technology-Based Economy
of Today
39. World Trade after World War II The EU, NAFTA
and the WTO

54
Indentured Servitude Why Sell Yourself into
Bondage?

Lesson 5

55
Visual 5.1 Background on Indentured Servants

Contracts
Indentured servants' contracts bound them to
perform work for an employer in North America.
These contracts had the force of law, and they
were enforced.
Contracts typically called for three-to-seven
years of service. The average period of service
was four years.
Early in the colonial period, women were offered
somewhat shorter contracts than men.
Contracts for harder work, such as growing
tobacco, were often for shorter terms than
contracts for easier work, such as performing
household duties.

56
Visual 5.1 Background on Indentured Servants

How the System Worked
Ordinarily a person would sign with a ship owner
or a recruiting agent in England.
As soon as the servant was delivered alive to an
American port, the contract would be sold to a
planter or merchant.

57
Visual 5.2 Why Would Free People Sell Themselves
into Bondage?

Why Would Free People Sell Themselves into
Bondage?
Many workers in colonial North America were
indentured servants.
The work they performed was often
difficultclearing land, planting tobacco,
performing household services.
The contracts signed by indentured servants had
the force of law.
Terms of service could be increased, for
example, if a worker violated the indenture by
trying to run away.
Servants could even be sold to other owners.
Why would people sell themselves into bondage?

58
Activity 5.2 Indentured Servitude in North America

Patrick McHugh
Costs?
Benefits?
William Heaton
Costs?
Benefits?
Mary Morgan
Costs?
Benefits?

Tom Holyfield
Costs?
Benefits?
Christian Mueller
Costs?
Benefits?

59
Would You Sell Your Labor?

Would you agree to perform two years of community
service in exchange for a significant reduction
in college tuition?
Costs?
Benefits?

60
Other Mysteries in U.S. History
61
Lesson 2 Mystery

American Indians are widely supposed to have
favored common ownership rather than private
property.
Like people everywhere, however, American Indians
distinguished between private and public
ownership.
Why did they decide to use private property in
some cases but public ownership in others?

62
Lesson 4 Mystery

The American colonies were an unlikely candidate
for economic success.
There was no gold and silver and no spices to
trade.
England held sway as a primary source of
manufactured goods.
Colonial America did possess land and other
natural resources, but labor was not abundant.
Eventually, however, the colonists lived longer
and better than the populations of other nations
and places at the time.
Why?

63
Lesson 18 Mystery

In light of the economic advantages of the North
over the South, it seems in retrospect almost
irrational for the South to have engaged the
North militarily. Why did the South secede?

64
Lesson 24 Mystery

During the late 19th century, industrialization
proceeded rapidly in the U.S. Men like Andrew
Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and the Cornelius
Vanderbilt pioneered the way.
Were these men Robber Barons or industrial
entrepreneurs?

65
Lesson 33 Mystery

People feared that the end of World War II would
be followed by a return to depression.
Instead, the years that followed the war brought
rising prosperity and an unprecedented expansion
of the American middle class.
Why did the economy expand after World War II
rather than falling into a new depression?

66
References for Teaching Economics in History

Focus Understanding Economics in U.S. History

67
Research on Focus U.S. History
Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Pre- and
Post-Test 1
Group Mean Score Before U.S. History Mean Score After U.S. History Change in Predicted Direction? Paired sample t-statistic p-Value (2-Tailed Test)
Control Group 13.26 (4.24) n150 13.66 (4.33) n150 Yes (no statistically significant change) -1.465 p0.145
Group that Used U.S. History 13.49 (4.65) n353 18.85 (10.57) n353 Yes (change is statistically significant) -9.977 plt0.000
1 Schug, M.C. Niederjohn, M.S. (2008). Can
Students Learn Economics in U.S. History?
Journal of Private Enterprise, 23 (2), 167-176
68
References

Teaching Economics in U.S. History
Social Education, March 2007
Edited by Mark Schug and Richard Western

69
References

Historical Statistics of the United States
Millennial Edition
Edited by Richard Sutch and Susan Carter with
contributions from 200 other scholars
Cambridge University Press
2006

70
References