Funding the Modern American State, 1941–1995
The Rise and Fall of the Era of Easy Finance

This book explores the history of US taxation and public finance since 1941.

W. Elliot Brownlee (Edited by)

9780521552400, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 January 1996

480 pages
23.5 x 16 x 3.6 cm, 0.783 kg

"The eight essays in Funding the Modern American State, 1945-1995, offer an excellent guide to US tax policy in the twentieth century." Robert Cuff, Business Library Review

The contemporary fiscal crisis faced by the American federal government represents the end of a fiscal regime that began with the financing of World War II. In this volume, an inter-disciplinary group of scholars explores the history of American taxation and public finance since 1941 in an attempt to understand the political, social and economic forces that have shaped the current regime. Specifically, they examine the historical context of earlier tax regimes and national crises; explore the ways post-1941 governments used taxation to finance war, social security, and economic stability; analyze the politics of post-1941 tax reform; and apply history to a consideration of the dynamics that are likely to characterize future tax regimes. The contributors are convinced that understanding the long-term development of American taxation and public finance will help policy makers determine the possibilities and constraints that must be taken in account in evaluating, and possibly reforming, the ways in which the nation pays for government.

Part I. Introduction: Methodological and Historical: 1. Reflections on the history of taxation
2. Tax regimes, national crises, and state-building in America
Taxation for War, Social Security, and Economic Stability: 3. Mass-based income taxation: creating a taxpaying culture, 1940-1952
4. Social security and the financing of the American state
5. The fiscal revolution in America
Part II. 1964 to 1994: Tax Reform and the Political Process: 6. Learning the ways and means: Wilbur Mills and a fiscal community, 1954-1964
7. American business and the taxing state: alliances for growth in the postwar period
The Next Revenue Regime: 8. Financing the American state at the turn of the century.

Subject Areas: Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], History of the Americas [HBJK]