Jeffrey A. Miron, Boston University The prohibition of alcohol, 1920-1933, is one of the most interesting policy experiments in U.S. history. Temperance movements waxed and waned in the U.S. from early in the nineteenth century, and these movements produced numerous state prohibitions. Many of these prohibitions were subsequently repealed, however, and those that persisted were […]
Published by EH.NET (April 2008) Philip J. Cook, Paying the Tab: The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. xiii + 262 pp. $35 (cloth), ISBN: 978-0-691-12520-6. Reviewed for EH.NET by Mark Thornton, Ludwig von Mises Institute. Philip Cook does not offer us an economic history here, but his book should […]
Published by EH.Net (July 2023). Mae Ngai. The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics. New York: W.W. Norton, 2021. xx + 440 pp. $30 (hardback), ISBN 978-0393634167. Reviewed for EH.Net by Ranjit Dighe, State University of New York at Oswego. In the English-speaking world of the late nineteenth century, the Chinese question […]
Detailed Schedule Friday, September 20 Authors Title Chair/Discussant Session 1 Institutions and Geography Steven Nafziger (Williams College) Scott Abramson (Princeton University) The Origins of the Territorial State Jean-Laurent Rosenthal (Caltech) Karen Clay (Carnegie Mellon University) Resources, Politics, Economics, and Curses: Evidence from the United States 1929-2002 Gavin Wright (Stanford University) William F. Maloney (World […]
Published by EH.NET (August 2005) Eduardo Saenz Rovner, La conexi?n cubana: Narcotr?fico, contrabando y juego en Cuba entre los a?os 20 y comienzos de la Revoluci?n. Bogota, Colombia: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Colecci?n CES, 2005. 278 pp. ISBN: 958-701-472-3. Reviewed for EH.NET by William McGreevey, Director, Development Economics, Futures Group. Eduardo […]
Published by EH.NET (March 2004) John Black, A Dictionary of Economics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, second edition. vi + 501 pp. $16.95 (paperback), ISBN: 0-19-0860767-9. Reviewed for EH.NET by Robert Whaples, Department of Economics, Wake Forest University. Economic History in a ‘Mainstream’ Reference Work Oxford’s Dictionary of Economics would make an excellent gift — […]
Published by EH.Net (July 2026). Jason E. Taylor. The Brew Deal: How Beer Helped Battle the Great Depression. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. x + 274 pp. $32.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-3031731327. Reviewed for EH.Net by Eric Rauchway, University of California, Davis. Jason E. Taylor’s The Brew Deal is a highly readable and enjoyable account […]
Published by EH.Net (January 2016) Yanni Kotsonis, States of Obligation: Taxes and Citizenship in the Russian Empire and Early Soviet Republic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. xx + 483 pp. $80 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-4426-4354-3. Reviewed for EH.Net by Steven Nafziger, Department of Economics, Williams College. This deeply researched study by a leading Russian historian […]
Published by EH.Net (November 2014) Ajay K. Mehrotra, Making the Modern American Fiscal State: Law, Politics, and the Rise of Progressive Taxation, 1877-1929. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. xvi + 429 pp. $90 (cloth), ISBN: 978-1-107-04392-3. Reviewed by Phillip W. Magness, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University. In 1918, only five years removed […]
Siddharth Chandra, University of Pittsburgh The history of opium has attracted the attention of historians for decades, and in a way that the history of few other commodities has. Because a lot has already been written on the opium trade in various parts of the world (for a sampling, see the citations at the end […]
