A brilliant young Ph.D. named Phillip Magness just finished his doctoral dissertation in the Ph.D. program in Public Policy at George Mason University.
The dissertation is an excellent new tariff history from the beginning of the republic up through the adoption of the income tax in 1913. One of the most important contributions here is Phil’s demonstration of how utterly wrongheaded historians like James McPherson can be when they comment on such things as the role of tariffs in American history without the benefit of any education in the field of economics, even at the most basic levels.
He also shows how almost all historians who write on the subject rely mostly on the mushy and deceptive language of protectionist politicians. (Alexander Hamilton does not come off in a very favorable light, nor do his main biographers).
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This sounds very interesting.
I hope that he turns this into a book, hopefully on that will be pitched to the general reading, and not just academia. (ie, something like Meltdown, vs a $60 book that would only be read by the ‘intellegistia’).
Someone needs to write (if there is a book on this topic, I do not know of one) that examines ALL the booms & busts in, at least, American History. This would address the problem that people have of what was the cause of booms/busts before the Fed.
A book on that is long overdue. It’d be an invaluable resource.
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