Filter by:

Filter by published date

Trump displaying a table of reciprocal tariffs.
partner

The Dangers of President Trump’s Favorite Word — Reciprocity

The Gilded Age roots of Trump's trade philosophy.
partner

The Truth About Trade Wars: Everyone Loses, and the Damage Is Hard To Undo

President Trump is repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression.

Taft and Trump

Much more than time separates the 27th president from the 45th.

America’s Tumultuous History With Tariffs

From William McKinley to Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump has plenty of precedent if he's looking for it.

'Trade Wars Are Good'?

Three past conflicts tell a very different story.

Congress Handed to the President the Power to Level Tariffs

A republic needs a legislature that can handle such tasks. We don’t have one.
Shipping container labeled "China Shipping," overlaid on political cartoon showing a tariff slowing supply of medicine to a drip.

Trump Loves The 1890s But He’s Clueless About Them

The tariffs he keeps babbling about didn’t make that decade great. They helped usher in a depression.
Donald Trump

Donald Trump Would Be Weaker the Second Time Around

Donald Trump wants the ideology of William McKinley and Gilded Age Republicanism, but with a totally different social base. It won’t work.
John Sherman
partner

The Other Sherman’s March

How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power.
President Bill Clinton signing NAFTA

The Long Shadow of NAFTA

Neither side of the border has seen the benefits it was promised.
The cover of "Sectionalism and American Political Development: 1880-1980"

Sectional Industrialization

Political scientist Richard Bensel explains the feedback loops between policy commitments of political elites and the regional distribution of political power.
Black-and-white illustration of men using several of Thomas Edison's inventions

A Dose of Rational Optimism

"Slouching Towards Utopia" is a rise-and-fall epic—but it is better at depicting the rise than explaining the fall.
Cover to Eric Helleiner's "The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History," a Japanese=style screen print depicting men discussing business by a train, with boats in the background.

Developmental Realism

Now is a critical time to acquire a better understanding of this misunderstood and oversimplified philosophy known as Neomercantilism.
Black and white photograph of crowd in China holding pictures of Mao Zedong in celebration.

U.S. Relations With China 1949–2022

U.S.-China relations have evolved from tense standoffs to a complex mix of intensifying diplomacy, growing international rivalry, and increasingly intertwined economies.
Cleveland-Stevenson Tariff Reform Portrait Handkerchief

Tax Regimes

Historian Robin Einhorn reflects on Americans’ complicated relationship to taxes, from the colonial period through the Civil War to the tax revolts of the 1980s.
John C. Calhoun

American Heretic, American Burke

A review of Robert Elder's new biography of John C. Calhoun.

Whose Century?

One has to wonder whether the advocates of a new Cold War have taken the measure of the challenge posed by 21st-century China.

The Late Murray Rothbard Takes on the Constitution

A lost volume of American history finds the light of day.
partner

To Be Effective, The Covid-19 Relief Bill Must Spark Consumer Spending

While assisting businesses, Congress must also continue to help consumers.

Grover Cleveland and the Democrats Who Saved Conservatism

They stood against Tammany Hall, the centralized presidency, and profligate spending. Today's Right should give them another look.

The Mind Behind Early American Protectionism

Before free trade became a consensus, Friedrich List argued that U.S. industry should be put first.

Midterms and Troops: The Bid to Save a Party that Led to the Wounded Knee Massacre

The political context for one of the worst atrocities ever to take place on U.S. soil.
original

Zones of Doubt

What we can learn about trade policy from a misbegotten 19th century effort to quantify the chemical properties of wool.
partner

Trump's National Security Justification for Tariffs is Not as Strange as it Sounds

Our concept of national security is so broad it can encompass virtually anything.

There’s Something Fishy About U.S.-Canada Trade Wars

In the 19th century, a tariff dispute actually came to blows, with 30 million frozen herring caught in the middle.
Trump glares at Trudeau at the G7 meeting.
partner

Trump Has Ignored the Worst Chapter of U.S.-Canada Relations

The War of 1812 holds lessons about the costly error of tariffs — not the threat of Canadians.
Donald Trump holding up a bill he signed.
partner

Ceding Power to the Executive is Backfiring on Free-Trade Advocates

Liberal Democrats sidestepped Congress to bring free trade to the U.S. Now, Trump is able to do the same thing to destroy it.
Trump speaks to auto workers.
partner

Donald Trump Wants to Take Republicans Back to Their Roots

The GOP was once the party of protectionism, while the Democrats led the way on free trade.

James Madison Would Like a Few Words on Trade Wars

The fourth president tried all kinds of sanctions to open markets, but still ended up in the War of 1812.

3 Ways to Think About the American Revolution

The complex combination of grievances that fueled the war had to do with taxes, class, and nationalism.

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person