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Recent Contributions to Economic History: The United States, 1789-1860
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
Extract
For the period between the adoption of the Constitution and the outbreak of the Civil War recent contributions have been considerable in amount and particularly notable for a high degree of concentration on the relationship between government and the economy. In 1945 a reader of the literature in the field would have found little to warn him against the assumption that the statesmen and legislators of the ante-bellum republic were faithful adherents, particularly in the economic field, of the Jeffersonian doctrine that that government is best which governs the least. Current scholarship, however, has forced a revision of this traditional view; and it is now clear that American governments intervened actively on a wide range of economic questions and in varied and complex interrelations with the activities of individuals and corporations. This significant correction has resulted in large part from two related shifts in the direction of research that have given increased attention to the economic role of state, and even local, authorities as contrasted with that of the national government, and to the promotive as contrasted with the regulatory functions of government.
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References
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