Author: Carl Lane
Publisher: Westholme Publishing
ISBN: 9781594162091
Category : Debts, Public
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
"When President James Monroe announced in his 1824 message to Congress that the [nation's] large public debt, [accumulated since the Revolution], would be extinguished on January 1, 1835, Congress crafted legislation to transform that prediction into reality. Yet John Quincy Adams, Monroe's successor, seemed not to share the commitment to debt freedom, resulting in the rise of opposition to his administration and his defeat for reelection in the bitter presidential campaign of 1828. The new president, Andrew Jackson, was thoroughly committed to debt freedom, and when it was achieved, it became the only time in American history when the country carried no national debt. Lane shows that the great and disparate issues that confronted Jackson, such as internal improvements, the 'war' against the Second Bank of the United States, and the crisis surrounding South Carolina's refusal to pay federal tariffs, become unified when debt freedom is understood as a core element of Jacksonian Democracy."--
Author: Carl Lane
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594163548
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Only Time America Was Free of Debt--and How It Led to the Two-Party Political System "An engaging treatment of a topic of perennial concern and frequent misunderstanding, this lucid tale of the brief moment when the United States was debt-free should be on every Congress member's bedside table."--Peter J.Woolley, Professor of Comparative Politics, Fairleigh Dickinson University When President James Monroe announced in his 1824 message to Congress that, barring an emergency, the large public debt inherited from the War for Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, and the War of 1812 would be extinguished on January 1, 1835, Congress responded by crafting legislation to transform that prediction into reality. Yet John Quincy Adams, Monroe's successor, seemed not to share the commitment to debt freedom, resulting in the rise of opposition to his administration and his defeat for reelection in the bitter presidential campaign of 1828. The new president, Andrew Jackson, was thoroughly committed to debt freedom, and when it was achieved, it became the only time in American history when the country carried no national debt. In A Nation Wholly Free: The Elimination of the National Debt in the Age of Jackson, award-winning economic historian Carl Lane shows that the great and disparate issues that confronted Jackson, such as internal improvements, the "war" against the Second Bank of the United States, and the crisis surrounding South Carolina's refusal to pay federal tariffs, become unified when debt freedom is understood as a core element of Jacksonian Democracy. The era of debt freedom lasted only two years and ten months. As the government accumulated a surplus, a fully developed opposition party emerged--the beginning of our familiar two-party system--over rancor about how to allocate the newfound money. Not only did government move into an oppositional party system at this time, the debate about the size and role of government distinguished the parties in a pattern that has become familiar to Americans. The partisan debate over national debt and expenditures led to poorly thought out legislation, forcing the government to resume borrowing. As a result, after Jackson left office in 1837, the country fell into a major depression. Today we confront a debt that exceeds $17 trillion. Indeed, we have been borrowing ever since that brief time we freed ourselves from an oversized debt. A thoughtful, engaging account with strong relevance to today, A Nation Wholly Free is the fascinating story of an achievement that now seems fanciful.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arms control
Languages : en
Pages : 376
Get Book Here
Book Description
Considers the London Treaty on the limitation of naval armaments, between the U.S., Britain, and Japan.
Author: Andrew Carroll
Publisher: Broadway
ISBN: 0767903315
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 494
Get Book Here
Book Description
Spanning 350 years of American history and culture, a collection of more than two hundred letters, many never before published, reveals the personalities and feelings of Americans great and small, from Amelia Earhart to Elvis Presley to Malcolm X. Reprint.
Author: Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 718
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: James E. BLOCK
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674022203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 673
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this sweeping reinterpretation of American political culture, James Block offers a new perspective on the formation of the modern American self and society. Block roots both self and society in the concept of agency, rather than liberty, and dispenses with the national myth of the "sacred cause of liberty"--with the Declaration of Independence as its "American scripture." Instead, he recovers the early modern conception of agency as the true synthesis emerging from America's Protestant and liberal cultural foundations. Block traces agency doctrine from its pre-Commonwealth English origins through its development into the American mainstream culture on the eve of the twentieth century. The concept of agency that prevailed in the colonies simultaneously released individuals from traditional constraints to participate actively and self-reliantly in social institutions, while confining them within a new set of commitments. Individual initiative was now firmly bounded by the modern values and ends of personal Protestant religiosity and collective liberal institutional authority. As Block shows, this complex relation of self to society lies at the root of the American character. A Nation of Agents is a new reading of what the "first new nation" did and did not achieve. It will enable us to move beyond long-standing national myths and grasp both the American achievement and its legacy for modernity. Table of Contents: Preface 1. The American Narrative in Crisis Part I. The English Origins of the American Self and Society 2. The Early Puritan Insurgents and the Origins of Agency 3. The Protestant Revolutionaries and the Emerging Society of Agents 4. Thomas Hobbes and the Founding of the Liberal Politics of Agency 5. John Locke and the Mythic Society of Free Agents Part II. The Ascendancy of Agency and the First New Nation 6. The Great Awakening and the Emergent Culture of Agency 7. The Revolutionary Triumph of Agency Part III. The Dilemma of Nationhood 8. The Liberal Idyll amidst Republican Realities 9. From the Idyll: Liberation and Reversal in a World without Bounds Part IV. The Creation of an Agency Civilization 10. National Revival as the Crucible of Agency Character 11. From Sectarian Discord to Civil Religion 12. The Protestant Agent in Liberal Economics 13. John Dewey and the Modern Synthesis Conclusion: The Recovery of Agency Notes Index Reviews of this book: A Nation of Agents is a work of extravagant erudition and originality. James E. Block has read voraciously in the sources, seen things that few have seen before, and put them together as none have done before. He sets forth a new view of American culture, threading his thesis through three centuries of American thought and the preceding century of English thinking besides. --Michael Zuckerman, Journal of American History Reviews of this book: What a wonder then is James Block's book, a daring master narrative and bracing theoretical exercise of the first order. It promises and delivers nothing less than a fundamental recasting of 'the American path to a modern self and society.' --Robert Westbrook, Christian Century Reviews of this book: James Block's big, ambitious A Nation of Agents leaves no doubt about its aspirations in the contest to solve the Gordian knot of the relationship between the one and the many in American social thought...The subtlety and acuity with which Block develops these themes through scores of thinkers and over 500 pages can scarcely be exaggerated. A Nation of Agents is a genuinely prodigious work of scholarship. --Daniel T. Rodgers, Modern Intellectual History This is an original and exciting work of scholarship, in which the idea of agency takes on the characteristics of a deep cultural imperative in American life. Block's agency thesis is at once a genealogy of modern American identity and a theoretical exploration of the horizon within which American political and moral self-reflection is conducted. --Eldon J. Eisenach, The University of Tulsa The most remarkable aspect of this book is the author's ability to weave a single thread -- the thread of "agency" -- through four centuries of Anglo-American intellectual history. Block's great achievement is to propound a new "common theme" to American history. A Nation of Agents is a beacon for scholars seeking a usable past. If ever intellectual history is to regain its prominence in the field of American history it will require works like this. --Harry S. Stout, Yale University
Author: Simon Johnson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307947645
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 386
Get Book Here
Book Description
From the authors of the national bestseller 13 Bankers, a chilling account of America’s unprecedented debt crisis: how it came to pass, why it threatens to topple the nation as a superpower, and what needs to be done about it. With bracing clarity, White House Burning explains why the national debt matters to your everyday life. Simon Johnson and James Kwak describe how the government has been able to pay off its debt in the past, even after the massive deficits incurred as a result of World War II, and analyze why this is near-impossible today. They closely examine, among other factors, macroeconomic shifts of the 1970s, Reaganism and the rise of conservatism, and demographic changes that led to the growth of major—and extremely popular—social insurance programs. What is unquestionably clear is how recent financial turmoil exacerbated the debt crisis while creating a political climate in which it is even more difficult to solve.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Current events
Languages : en
Pages : 758
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1060
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Theodore Roosevelt
Publisher: e-artnow
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 2347
Get Book Here
Book Description
This carefully edited collection has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Table of Contents: Autobiography The Naval War of 1812 Hero Tales from American History The Winning of the West Through the Brazilian Wilderness Letters to His Children The Rough Riders A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open Hunting The Grisly And Other Sketches America and the World War Average Americans The Strenuous Life Expansion and Peace Fellow-Feeling as Political Factor Character & Success History as Literature Biological Analogies in History The World Movement The Thraldom of Names Productive Scholarship Dante and the Bowery The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century The Search for Truth in a Reverent Spirit The Ancient Irish Sagas An Art Exhibition The Duties of American Citizenship Professionalism in Sports Practical Work in Politics Resignation Letter Colonel Roosevelt's Reports Strength & Decency The Square Deal Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech The Man With the Muck Rake Sons of the Puritans Where We Can Work With Socialists Where We Cannot Work With Socialists Citizenship in a Republic (the Man in the Arena) International Peace The New Nationalism Duty & Self-control The Right of the People to Rule I Have Just Been Shot Address to the Boys Progressive League Address to the Knights of Columbus
