The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877–1900

Explains the compatibility of economic development and democracy in the United States during industrialization.

Richard Franklin Bensel (Author)

9780521776042, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 November 2000

576 pages, 1 b/w illus. 14 maps 82 tables
22.6 x 15 x 2.8 cm, 0.76 kg

'No historian interested in the period and issues covered by this book can afford to neglect it.' History

In the late nineteenth century, the United States underwent an extremely rapid industrial expansion that moved the nation into the front ranks of the world economy. At the same time, the nation maintained democratic institutions as the primary means of allocating political offices and power. The combination of robust democratic institutions and rapid industrialization is rare and this book explains how development and democracy coexisted in the United States during industrialization. Most literature focuses on either electoral politics or purely economic analyses of industrialization. This book synthesizes politics and economics by stressing the Republican party's role as a developmental agent in national politics, the primacy of the three great developmental policies (the gold standard, the protective tariff, and the national market) in state and local politics, and the impact of uneven regional development on the construction of national political coalitions in Congress and presidential elections.

List of tables
List of maps and charts
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Uneven economic development in the United States
3. Platform demands, party competition and industrialization
4. Claims on wealth and electoral coalitions
5. Political construction of the national market
6. Political administration and defense of the Gold Standard
7. Tariff protection and the Republican party
8. Conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Political economy [KCP], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]