Ruling Passions: Political Economy in Nineteenth-century America (Issues in Policy History)

In recent years, the "Journal of Policy History" has emerged as a major venue for scholarship on American policy history in the period after 1900. Indeed, it is for this reason that it is often praised as the leading outlet for scholarship on American political history in the world. Only occasionally, however, has it featured essays on the early republic, the Civil War, or the post-Civil War era. And when it has, the essays have often focused on partisan electioneering rather than on governmental institutions. The rationale for this special issue of the "Journal of Policy History" is to expand the intellectual agenda of policy history backward in time so as to embrace more fully the history of governmental institutions in the period before 1900. Its six essays contain much that will be new even for specialists in nineteenth-century American policy history, yet they are written in a style that is intended to be accessible to college undergraduates and historians unfamiliar with the period. In addition to the editor, contributors are Sean Patrick Adams, Robin L. Einhorn, Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Steven W. Usselman, R. Daniel Wadhwani, and Mark R. Wilson.

In recent years, the Journal of Policy History has emerged as a major venue for scholarship on American policy history in the period after 1900. Indeed, it is for this reason that it is often praised as the leading outlet for scholarship on American political history in the world. Only occasionally, however, has it featured essays on the early republic, the Civil War, or the post–Civil War era. And when it has, the essays have often focused on partisan electioneering rather than on governmental institutions. The rationale for this special issue of the Journal of Policy History is to expand the intellectual agenda of policy history backward in time, so as to embrace more fully the history of governmental institutions in the period before 1900. The six essays in this volume contain much that will be new even for specialists in nineteenth-century American policy history, yet they are written in a style that is intended to be accessible to college undergraduates and historians unfamiliar with the period.

Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 RICHARD R. JOHN - Ruling Passions: Political Economy in Nineteenth-Century America......Page 8 ROBIN L. EINHORN - Institutional Reality in the Age of Slavery: Taxation and Democracy in the States......Page 28 MARK R. WILSON - The Politics of Procurement: Military Origins of Bureaucratic Autonomy......Page 51 SEAN PATRICK ADAMS - Promotion, Competition, Captivity: The Political Economy of Coal......Page 81 STEVEN W. USSELMAN and RICHARD R. JOHN - Patent Politics: Intellectual Property, the Railroad Industry, and the Problem of Monopoly......Page 103 R. DANIEL WADHWANI - Protecting Small Savers: The Political Economy of Economic Security......Page 133 NAOMI R. LAMOREAUX - Did Insecure Property Rights Slow Economic Development? Some Lessons from Economic History......Page 153 Contributors......Page 172 "Journal of Policy History" has emerged as a major venue for scholarship on American policy history in the period after 1900. This work contains six essays intended for college undergraduates and historians unfamiliar with the period. 'This work was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Policy History (vol. 18, no. 1, 2006)'--T.p. verso.