The Political Economy of the American Frontier


Book Description

Demonstrates why claim clubs are perhaps the most important explanation for the origins of and change in property institutions during an important period in American history.




The Political Economy of the American West


Book Description

In the American West, trappers, miners, and farmers often preceded the formal institutions of government and therefore had to invent their own institutional framework. Early historians like Frederick Jackson Turner and Walter Prescott Webb found heroes in this romantic frontier. Modern historians, however, are challenging the traditional histories, arguing that the history of the West is one of natural resource waste, minority exploitation, and political manipulation by a powerful elite. This book challenges many conclusions from both schools in a framework that considers Western history as an episode in the evolution of property rights. The authors in this volume provide a new way of thinking about the West that relies neither on heroes nor villains but argues that economics and politics shaped the institutional environment of the American West.




The Next American Frontier


Book Description

Brings together economic, social, and political analyses to formulate a program for an American revival, in terms of the nation's economy and of a more equitable life for the American people.




The Political Economy of the American Frontier


Book Description

This book offers an analytical explanation for the origins of and change in property institutions on the American frontier during the nineteenth century. Its scope is interdisciplinary, integrating insights from political science, economics, law and history. This book shows how claim clubs - informal governments established by squatters in each of the major frontier sectors of agriculture, mining, logging and ranching - substituted for the state as a source of private property institutions and how they changed the course of who received a legal title, and for what price, throughout the nineteenth century. Unlike existing analytical studies of the frontier that emphasize one or two sectors, this book considers all major sectors, as well as the relationship between informal and formal property institutions, while also proposing a novel theory of emergence and change in property institutions that provides a framework to interpret the complicated history of land laws in the United States.




Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth


Book Description

The conditions for sustainable growth and development are among the most debated topics in economics, and the consensus is that institutions matter greatly in explaining why some economies are more successful than others over time. This book explores the relationship between economic conditions, growth, and inequality.




The Great Frontier


Book Description

The Great Frontier presents a new theory of the history of the Western World since 1492 when Columbus opened the frontier lands to a static European society.




The Two Faces of American Freedom


Book Description

The Two Faces of American Freedom boldly reinterprets the American political tradition from the colonial period to modern times, placing issues of race relations, immigration, and presidentialism in the context of shifting notions of empire and citizenship. Today, while the U.S. enjoys tremendous military and economic power, citizens are increasingly insulated from everyday decision-making. This was not always the case. America, Aziz Rana argues, began as a settler society grounded in an ideal of freedom as the exercise of continuous self-rule—one that joined direct political participation with economic independence. However, this vision of freedom was politically bound to the subordination of marginalized groups, especially slaves, Native Americans, and women. These practices of liberty and exclusion were not separate currents, but rather two sides of the same coin. However, at crucial moments, social movements sought to imagine freedom without either subordination or empire. By the mid-twentieth century, these efforts failed, resulting in the rise of hierarchical state and corporate institutions. This new framework presented national and economic security as society’s guiding commitments and nurtured a continual extension of America’s global reach. Rana envisions a democratic society that revives settler ideals, but combines them with meaningful inclusion for those currently at the margins of American life.







The New Frontier Playbook


Book Description

The New Frontier Playbook maps out a political economic plan for an American program in space that offers a vast payoff in public value back here on Earth. This is what it could mean: Minimum wage jobs that pay $250/hour or more, come with a 5-year contract, and end with $1M in savings. An economy in space that operates at an exponentially higher level of prices and wages (an Economic Conjugate) than our current domestic economy on Earth, which RESULTS in: A massive public return on investment (ROI) on public funds invested in space collected via taxes and fees on that space economy, which then DELIVERS: A Trifecta Economy on Earth of low taxes, high benefits, and no public debt, which FINANCES: The cost of a full transition to a carbon-free, net-zero economy, the elimination of all poverty, and the creation of modern institutions and services from higher education to healthcare that are accessible to everyone and the pride of all. This book challenges status quo, static thinking when it comes to the space frontier. It offers a new vision and framework focused on the practical political and economic building blocks that must align to create a more powerful case for betting big on our own future: Growth, jobs, and economic prosperity. This is a vision for a future where America is coming together, not racing apart, and families can be confident that their children will have a future that is bolder and more prosperous than their own. The New Frontier Playbook offers a roadmap to a bolder American and human future.




The Other Side Of The Frontier


Book Description

A collection of essays by renowned scholars of Native American economic history, The Other Side of the Frontier presents one of the first in-depth studies of the complex interaction between the history of Native American economic development and the economic development of the United States at large. Although recent trends in the field of economics have encouraged the study of minority groups such as Asians and African Americans, little work has been done in Native American economic history. This text fills an existing gap in economic history literature and will help students come to a richer understanding of the effects that U.S. economic policy has had on the culture and development of its indigenous peoples.