ECHI3009/6009 Essay Topics:

Essay: Due 22 September 2025 12pm
1. Why was British industrialization exceptional?
2. Was it possible to anticipate future American industrial leadership during the mid-
1800s?
3. What factors were important to the international spread of industrialization?
4. Discuss the role and importance of the state in the economic growth of the European
countries as they attempted to catch up to Britain.
5. Discuss the importance of country/region characteristics such as demographics,
institutions and so on in fostering economic growth. Focus on whether it was feasible
to grow even if a country/region did not exhibit the same characteristics as Britain.
Cite evidence to substantiate your answer.
6. How did the Great Depression differ in impact between countries and why?

Notes: Please refer to the course reading list to find lists of sources that you should consult to
help you answer these questions. My preference is that you use those sources first before
finding new ones. I am open to sources that are not on the list but it needs to be clear to me
why they are there eg my own list is not up to date. My reasoning is that AI makes up
references or uses obscure literature that is not given much credit by academics. When citing
books you need to include the page number where you read the information you are using for
your argument.

Use of AI: In the past I would suggest to students that they get help editing their own written
work. AI is a good source of help for your own already written work. However, AI tends to
generalise specific points so that the meaning is not longer clear and it tends to overuse
adjectives. Once AI edits your work, you need to go over it and re-edit so that your specific
examples are still there and you aren’t using too many meaningless adjectives.
Ideally you would not feed the question into AI and submit the answer, I accept that the
essays will be some combination of your reading and your thoughts and some improvements
by AI.



学霸联盟