The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln to Wilson--The Fierce Battles over Money and Power That Transformed the Nation (Hardcover)

by Steven R. Weisman (Author) "MONEY!" ABRAHAM LINCOLN EXCLAIMED..." (more)
Key Phrases: taxing wealth, wealthiest taxpayers, income tax amendment, New York, United States, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Must the story of taxes be taxing? Apparently not. Weisman, a New York Times editorial writer, turns the usually leaden story of income taxes, tariffs, wealth redistribution and the politics of finance into an educational and readable tale. He starts, as he must, with the Civil War income tax, and progresses through the Gilded Age and the years of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson and Taft to the 16th Amendment of 1913, which gave sanction to income taxes after the Supreme Court had outlawed them. While the story is a serious one, tax battles gave rise to much laughable drivel, which Weisman reports with delicious relish. Sometimes, however, his overattention to detail obscures his focus, such as in his discussion of the economics of the Civil War, and he slights the states, where many innovations in taxes were born. In choosing color over analysis, he misses opportunities to ask important questions, such as why the Confederacy, claiming distinctiveness as well as independence from the North, implemented Northern-style taxes. What Weisman does make clear is that since 1920, the debate over the income tax ("one of the most important progressive achievements in the making of modern America") has never strayed far from the question of tax rates. It's hard to see how we'll ever escape that debate, he says, because it arises from different conceptions of the nation's promise. This is an important, relevant and well-written story, even if, in the end, it may prove not quite satisfactory to serious historians.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
There is double meaning to the "tax wars" mentioned in the title. First, there are the class wars over the establishment of a graduated tax on incomes; second, there are the military encounters (the Civil War and World War I) responsible for the enactment, and ultimate acceptance, of income tax legislation. Weisman, a veteran New York Times journalist and editorial writer, provides a carefully researched, thoroughly documented history explaining the course of the political debates, Supreme Court decisions, and political party alignments that ultimately resulted in ratification of the 16th Amendment, permitting Congress to "lay and collect taxes on incomes." He begins by providing background on the temporary income tax levied by Lincoln to support the Civil War, then describes the 19th-century battles against maintaining tariffs on popular goods, which were favored by the powerful bankers and industrialists. Finally, Weisman shows how populism, progressivism, and the voracious financial demands of the "War To End All Wars" produced a new federal government revenue structure through Wilson's enactment of the War Revenue Act of 1917. What results is a balanced, highly readable book. Recommended for academic and larger public Libraries.
Jill Ortner, SUNY at Buffalo Lib.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684850680
• ISBN-13: 978-0684850689
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #429,977 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #80 in

  Books > Business & Investing > Personal Finance > Personal Taxes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force iwith the most improbable of topics, September 25, 2002

By	Dan A Staringer (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

New York Times' journalist Steven Weisman has written a thoroughly enlightening and entertaining treatise on the history of the income tax from its inception in 1862 during the early stages of the Civil War through its maturation as a foundation of our public financing during World War I. While many might not think of such a subject as entertaining, it is all that and more in Weisman's capable hands.
What Weisman has done is parlay the minutiae of tax policy with the monumental economic, military and social movements from 1860-1920 that shaped the policy. As a result, this is much more than a book about taxes. It transcends its' published theme to embrace a study of America's view of its public obligations, its structure and its values during arguably the most tumultuous 60 years of our history. He deftly knits the ebb and flow of the North and South's fortunes during the Civil War and ties this with the reticence of Lincoln regarding fiscal policy to show how both sides engaged in disastrous borrowing schemes to finance the war. Meanwhile, the seeds of the first income tax, enacted in 1862 and providing nominal money to the war coffers of the Union, lead to vitriolic and acerbic exchanges between politicians and business. The story could not be told in any more compelling fashion.
Weisman then saliently takes the reader through the repeal of the tax in 1872 and he does a magnificent job of describing the 1895 Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the tax on constitutional grounds. What one sees quite clearly from this passage is a rather politicized Supreme Court. Anyone who thinks 2000 established precedent for court rulings derived from political forces is sadly mistaken.
Weisman then picks up steam as he gives a balanced portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt. While contemporary popular legend has Roosevelt fashioning solutions for breaking trusts and pushing for progressive taxation, Weisman shows that his rhetoric was far greater than his accomplishments, though one can argue that he certainly punished the barriers to progressive taxation and increased the assault on the tariff system that regressively funded the government for most of the 19th century.
Weisman doesn't stop there. He then takes us on a savory journey through the enactment of the 16th amendment that legalized direct taxation with equal apportionment, the argument used for the 1895 Supreme Court ruling and then onto the pivotal presidency of Woodrow Wilson. During this dissertation he gives us glimpses into the lives of important members of Congress and the executive branch, men that played key roles either as proponents or opponents of progressive taxation. They come alive on the pages of this book.
While it is rather easy to see that Weisman is a Democrat, he has done a commendable job to allow this book to be read by liberal and conservative alike. People on either end of the political spectrum can gather cogent knowledge and historical perspective about the income tax in American and while readers will not always agree with Weisman's conclusions, it is difficult to argue that he has not done a remarkable job portraying a most difficult and a most important part of every one of our lives, our funding of our government.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Taxes can be a taxing topic, February 11, 2004

By	Jonathon Lever (Green River, WY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Great Tax Wars : Lincoln to Wilson--The Fierce Battles over Money and Power That Transformed the Nation (Hardcover)

While some reviewers have indicated that this book, in addressing the topic of the history of the income tax, is not really taxing to read, the battles of the income tax tend to be some of the less interesting components of the story. Weisman does an excellent job of providing the historical context in which the battles over income tax take place, and it is this context that is much more interesting than some of the battles that took place in establishing the tax as a permanent component of the American government.

What is truly interesting about the battles over the income tax is the almost verbatim arguments that have occured against the tax, extending almost to the supply side economics argument popularized by the Regean campaign of 1980. This is fairly close to the arguments that were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Seeing that the basis of the tax argument, on either side hasn't changed much is enlightening when examining current policy debates.

Weisman also provides some interesting insights into the administrations of Roosevelt and Wilson and the politics that surrounded both of them, beyond the taxation issue. Especially noteworthy is Roosevelt's general feeling toward Wilson which extends beyond the issue of raising taxes.

Ultimately, for the discounted price the book is worth the time to read. Buying it at full price, it might not be as worth while.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite good, but not great, May 20, 2003

By	A. Hoy "amysusedbooks" (Rosedale, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Great Tax Wars : Lincoln to Wilson--The Fierce Battles over Money and Power That Transformed the Nation (Hardcover)

For the price, this book truly is a bargain.

The author starts off very strong with the historical presentation of Lincoln, but there are many places where it flagged -- the author lost focus and went on tangents about other, seemingly unrelated historical things, often for "miles and miles" of pages. I'm sure he faced a tough decision in what to include and what not to include, as is the case for any history book because to put it into true perspective you want to include everything -- but you can't. There should have been more judicious cutting here.

The editorial review is also correct: the author didn't ask many important questions in his book, whether overtly or in a more subtle manner. In fact, I kept waiting for the history lesson to end and some more of the author's personality and thoughts to come through, but it didn't happen after the first 1/3 of the book.

Reading this book was quite a lot like watching a (historical re-enactment-style) movie, to be honest, which is good if you just want to know what happened but not if you're looking for an intellectual discussion of "why?" It was a good history lesson, but I will look for other books with a more discussion-oriented bent to round out my newly developed knowledge.