Do the humanities have a role in thinking inequality? In the nineteenth century, political economy, the precursor to economics, was largely a humanistic method focused on questions of distribution rather than efficiency as is often true today. Recent new work in various fields as well as the resuscitation of political economy itself suggests Humanities may be reinserting itself into the inequality conversation. In this class, we will explore the shift from political economy to economics in the nineteenth century, the methodological revisions it occasioned and, inspired by new multidisciplinary thinking about economics, consider if this earlier moment can still help us think about inequality. We will read the fiction of Dickens, Hardy, Wells, Eliot, the political economy and economics of Smith, Mill, Jevons, Marshall, Veblen and modern theorists Orlean, Yuran, Feher, Nussbaum, Piketty. (18th/19th)