| A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate Over Democratic Capitalism Contributor(s): O'Connor, Mike (Author) |
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ISBN: 0700619712 ISBN-13: 9780700619719 Publisher: University Press of Kansas OUR PRICE: $54.40 Product Type: Hardcover Published: May 2014 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Political Economy - History | United States - General - Political Science | Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism |
| Dewey: 320.58 |
| Series: American Political Thought (University Press of Kansas) |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.9" W x 9.1" (1.30 lbs) 320 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: As recently as 2008, when Presidents Bush and Obama acted to bail out the nation's crashing banks and failing auto companies, the perennial objection erupted anew: government has no business in . . . business. Mike O'Connor argues in this book that those who cite history to decry government economic intervention are invoking a tradition that simply does not exist. In a cogent and timely take on this ongoing and increasingly contentious debate, O'Connor uses deftly drawn historical analyses of major political and economic developments to puncture the abiding myth that business once operated apart from government. From its founding to the present day, our commercial republic has always mixed--and battled over the proper balance of--politics and economics. Contesting the claim that the modern-day libertarian conception of U.S. political economy represents the natural American economic philosophy, O'Connor demonstrates that this perspective has served historically as only one among many. Beginning with the early national debate over the economic plans proposed by Alexander Hamilton, continuing through the legal construction of the corporation in the Gilded Age and the New Deal commitment to full employment, and concluding with contemporary concerns over lowering taxes, this book demonstrates how the debate over government intervention in the economy has illuminated the possibilities and limits of American democratic capitalism. |
Contributor Bio(s): O'Connor, Mike: - Mike O'Connor has taught U. S. history at universities in New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. His writing has appeared in the scholarly journals Contemporary Pragmatism and The Sixties and in the newspapers Austin AmericanStatesman and the Daily Texan. One of the original bloggers on the U. S. Intellectual History site, O'Connor later founded (with several others) the Society for U. S. Intellectual History. |