An Economic History of the United States: Conquest, Conflict, and Struggles for Equality

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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 postGreat Recession era of today, Frederick S. Weaver creates a dynamic narrative of this countrys 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.

Reviews

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 Americas 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 postWW 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. * CHOICE *
A fascinating account of the American economic story. -- Simon Johnson, MIT Sloan School of Management, former economic counsellor and director of the research department of the IMF
Fred Weavers An Economic History of the United States is an unfailingly engaging, succinct, and insightful analysis into the economic forces that have shaped the lives of those who have populated our nation, from its Mercantilist beginnings in the colonial period to the unraveling of the U.S. economy during the Great Recession of the last decade. Weaver digs deep to unearth the mlange of conflicts between labor and capital, among competing capitalists, and between public policy and private interests that underlie the history of a U.S. economy embedded in and constrained by a global economy. At the same time, he breathes life into the day-to-day manifestations of those conflicts in the struggles between South and North, over industrialization and immigration, and in todays economy bedeviled by persistent stagnation and ever worsening inequality. -- John Miller, professor, Wheaton College

Author Bio

Frederick S. Weaver is emeritus professor of economics and history at Hampshire College. He is author of eleven books, most recently The United States and the Global Economy: From Bretton Woods to the Current Crisis and Economic Literacy: Basic Economics with an Attitude, 3rd Edition.