An Economic History of the United States

Conquest, Conflict, and Struggles for Equality

By (author) Frederick S. Weaver

Publication date:

12 November 2015

Length of book:

302 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442257238

The economy of the United States is constantly evolving in response to wars, technological innovations, cultural revolutions, and political maneuverings. Tracing the economic machine of the United States from its first experiments in the colonies to the post–Great Recession era of today, Frederick S. Weaver creates a dynamic narrative of this country’s progression through times of feast and times of famine. Weaver explores diverse areas of the market beyond the financial sector, examining historical fluctuations in distribution of income, how the ebb and flow of specific industries have influenced the shape of the market, and, ultimately, how the economy of the United States has made America the nation we know today. Conquest, Conflict, and Struggles for Equality: An Economic History of the United States is a thoughtful and accessible introduction to the subject of American economic history, suitable for undergraduate courses in US political and economic history.

Table of Contents
Introduction: Some Initial Definitions and Organizational Strategies

Part I: Colonial Roots
Chapter 1: Mercantilism, British Colonialism, and Independence

Part II: The New Nation: From Revolution to Civil War
Chapter 2: Defining the New Nation
Chapter 3: Regions, Sections, and Civil War

Part III: Fifty Years after the Civil War
Chapter 4: Wartime Legislation, Western Expansion, and Reconstruction
Chapter 5: Changing Forms of Industrial Development
Chapter 6: Social Change, Politics, and Reform
Chapter 7: The United States in the World

Part IV: Into the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Chapter 8: War, Depression, War
Chapter 9: Post-World War II Recovery, Institutional Innovation,
Chapter 10: The Demise of the Bretton Woods System and the Dissolution of U.S. Modern Times, 1980
Chapter 11: The Great Recession, Austerity, and Three Worrisome Tendencies

Glossary
Bibliography

‘Standard’ approaches to the history of the US economy (e.g., Gary Walton and Hugh Rockoff; Jonathan Hughes and Louis Cain) take a narrative approach, bolstered with the use of neoclassical microeconomic or Keynesian macroeconomic analyses of specific issues (e.g., the economics of slavery; the causes and consequences of economic “panics”). Weaver takes a different path, developing a ‘political economy’ approach based on an understanding of capitalism as a conflict between workers and owners, with an emphasis on manufacturing (and a secondary emphasis on America’s role in the global economy). In doing this, he clearly differentiates his book from other textbooks in the field. . . .Another point of differentiation is that Weaver devotes a third of the book to post–WW II developments, far more than other texts. This is an interesting book, but for most teachers of US economic history it will require a major rethinking of the structure and content of their courses. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic audiences: lower-division undergraduates and up; general readers.