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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
American Financial History, September 24, 2005
American Economic History is a challenging, extensive, and complete economic history of the United States from the establishment of the first settlements to our modern economic issues and trends. Author Paul Samuelson gives an overview appropriate to the college junior, senior, or advanced student. Samuelson's text does a good job of discussing and analyzing the slavery question that, for the most part, led to the Civil War. And he discusses the causes of economic depression by using the 1929 market crash as an example. The author also surveys various notions as regards most of the significant economic issues in American History: usually giving us the most logical view as based on the emperical evidence available to the economist/historian. In addition, to being generally well written and accurate, this History lends itself to a short to moderate length essay as a means of evaluation. TWA
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Among the best you can get in economic history, December 16, 2006
This is a wonderful textbook for anyone looking to teach a course on economic history of the United States. For just general reading I would recommend Gordon's An Empire of Wealth but for others looking to teach or do an independent study this is a must. It clearly lays out all the developments in our economy very carefully and does a wonderful job of discussing current and relevant literature so you can specialize in the areas that you wish to look at further.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent; 4.5 Stars, August 29, 2011
For what it aims to accomplish, this is a first-rate book. Cain (who took over authorship in a prior editions after Hughes untimely death) aims to provide a comprehensive, chronologically arranged narrative and analysis of American economic growth from the Colonial period to the present. The intent is to reach a broad audience and Cain writes clearly, avoids use of a lot of technical language, introduces basic economic concepts as needed, and is very good at explaining relatively abstruse questions. Book production is very good and a strength of this volume. The narrative writing is very strong, there is abundant use of clear and well chosen tables and charts to illustrate many important points and issues. There are a number of nice illustrations in each chapter. Cain does a particularly nice job of providing useful bibliographies and sets of references for further reading. One of the best things about this book is the broad spectrum of issues and analyses discussed. What might be considered the core issues of economic growth, patterns of trade, financial history, and other more purely economic topics are covered extremely well. In addition, there are a number of excellent and interesting sections on important related topics such as the importance and evolution of the American legal system, demographic changes, history of technology, and good coverage of specific and sometimes controversial issues such as the economics of slavery. Cain does a nice job of discussing the history of some controversies. While relatively minor, there are some defects. The narrative, while generally strong, is sometimes a bit historically tone-deaf. Its not, for example, really accurate to refer to the dynastic states of 17th century France and Spain as nation-states. In his discussion of the late 19th and early 20th century, Cain tends to lump together the Progressive and Populist movements. As is common with a lot of economists, Cain has a tendency to treat market relationships as normative, which has a bit of circular flavor. Nonentheless, this is a really useful and enjoyable book.
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