James Hartley

Professor of Economics; Director of First Year Seminars

Specialization: Macroeconomics; business cycles; the "Great Books" of Western civilization

James Hartley is the author of The Representative Agent in Macroeconomics (Routledge, 1997) and the coeditor, with Kevin D. Hoover and Kevin D. Salyer, of Real Business Cycles: A Reader (Routledge, 1998).

While Hartley describes himself as an "economist to the core," he developed his class, The Great Books and Economics, to attract nonmajors to the field of economics. The class features in-class lectures on introductory economic theory, and all the reading material is drawn from the "Great Books" of Western civilization.

Hartley also teaches Macroeconomic Theory, Current Macroeconomic Policies, Seminar in Money and Banking, and Western Civilization: An Introduction through the Great Books. This yearlong first-year seminar begins with works emerging from Athens and Jerusalem and proceeds to the modern world. The course explores the ideas that constitute Western civilization, including interdisciplinary materials from such authors as Shakespeare, Plato, Dante, Einstein, Augustine, Darwin, Homer, Locke, Goethe, Eliot, and the writers of the Old and New Testaments.

News Links:

"Jim Hartley on the Economy," Office of Communications, March 25, 2008

"A Short(s) Story: Professor James Hartley's Unique Approach to Winter Dress," College Street Journal, January 24, 2003

"Mount Holyoke's Lone Conservative," College Street Journal, February 16, 2001

"A Novel Approach: Hartley Teaches Economics by the Books," College Street Journal, November 17, 2000