From Publishers Weekly
Columbia University professor Bruchey tries to place the economic trends that enabled the United States to rush to commercial supremacy in the context of the broader social and political climate of the republic. While making a dollar has been a unifying forceeven before there were dollarsBruchey shows that it was not until the colonies and then states adopted a more national viewpoint that significant economic growth was possible. (Indeed, President Thomas Jefferson spoke near-heresy in 1806 when he suggested that Congress consider using surplus federal revenues for the "improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education and other great foundations of prosperity and union.") Bruchey also argues that the judiciary's accommodation to the agents of commercethe corporation as citizen, with rights and recourse, is largely an invention of the Supreme Courthelped spur economic development. Although in many cases the social and political analysis here is scant, Bruchey has provided an economic history of the nation that the general reader will find palatable.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Bruchey has written a concise introduction to U.S. economic history. He treats the colonial and early national years rather cursorily, but gains considerable momentum when he turns to the period after the Civil War. He is especially good in discussing the rise of big business, the Progressive movement, and the legal system, and his chapter on the Roaring Twenties and Depression is excellent. Overall, a readable introduction to an important topic that will appeal primarily to informed laypersons. (Because it lacks references, the book is less suitable for undergraduates.) William J. Hausman, Coll. of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
