Customer Reviews

Federal Taxation in America: A Short History (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)

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Brownlee gives a great overview of America's taxation history. The book is a fairly fast read and gives the reader a good historical framework without a multitude of minutia. It also seems to be relatively free from bias, although Brownlee evidently does not adore FDR...

The United States began as a dispute over taxes. The Stamp Act, the Boston Tea Party. Taxes were levied by England and the Americans didn't want to pay them. So we had a revolution to eliminate them. Then, somewhere along the way we found that we needed taxes to support what we wanted the Federal Government to do - like fight the Civil War.

This began the first phase of Federal taxation which lasted until World War I. Phase 2 lasted until World War II. And the basic structure of taxes established then lasted until Reagan in 1980. We are now in a new phase with the structure getting gradually changed under George W. Bush.

While the news media have been spending almost all their time on things like Iraq, behind the scenes the fundamental basic taxing structure is being debated between the President and Congress. Still being called the same things, like income tax, the income tax may take on more of the attributes of a tax on consumption. Widely attacked by the Democrats, under the Bush tax program, the richest 5 percent of taxpayers account for 56 percnt of income tax collections (up from 42% in 1986). And the deficit has increased to about 4.2%, well under the almost 6% of the Reagan era. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.

Well written, easy to understand, this is a book that goes far beyond the 30 second sound bites so popular on today's television news to provide an explanation on how the taxing structure of the United States got where it is, and some good thoughts on where it is going.

I really enjoyed this very well researched book. It appears to be the best-researched book on the subject despite its short length. Brownlee does a very good job of describing the interplay between private interests and ideology regarding U.S. tax policy. In addition, he keeps in mind that policy does not occur in a vacuum. He carefully describes the political entrepreneurs who make change come about.

It is a good prescription for ignorance.
Saying that the US is the least heavily taxed developed nation is like saying "hey I only slap my wife, my nieghbor beats his wife."