Course idea

Global Commodities: Start of a syllabus

Week One
Selections from Gary Gereffi, Miguel Korzeniew, Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism

Week Two
Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History

Week Three
Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History

Week Four
Kurlansky, Salt: A World History

Week Five
Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History

Week Six
Harp, A World History of Rubber: Empire, Industry, and the Everyday

Week Seven
Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power

Week Eight
Gootenberg, Cocaine: Global Histories

Week Nine
McCoy, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade

Week Ten
Sheller, Aluminum Dreams: Making of Light Modernity

Week Eleven
Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade