A History of Futures Trading in the United States
Joseph Santos, South Dakota State University Many contemporary [nineteenth century] critics were suspicious of a form of business in which one man sold what he did not own to another who did not want it… Morton Rothstein (1966) Anatomy of a Futures Market The Futures Contract A futures contract is a standardized agreement between a […]
The Economic History of the Fur Trade: 1670 to 1870
Ann M. Carlos, University of Colorado Frank D. Lewis, Queen’s University Introduction A commercial fur trade in North America grew out of the early contact between Indians and European fisherman who were netting cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and on the Bay of Gaspé near Quebec. Indians would trade the pelts of small […]
The U.S. Economy in the 1920s
Gene Smiley, Marquette University Introduction The interwar period in the United States, and in the rest of the world, is a most interesting era. The decade of the 1930s marks the most severe depression in our history and ushered in sweeping changes in the role of government. Economists and historians have rightly given much attention […]
African Americans in the Twentieth Century
Thomas N. Maloney, University of Utah The nineteenth century was a time of radical transformation in the political and legal status of African Americans. Blacks were freed from slavery and began to enjoy greater rights as citizens (though full recognition of their rights remained a long way off). Despite these dramatic developments, many economic and […]
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis
Published by EH.Net (August 2013) Ben S. Bernanke, The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. vii + 134 pp. $20 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-691-15873-0. Reviewed for EH.Net by Kris James Mitchener, Department of Economics, University of Warwick. This book is the product of a series of university lectures given by […]
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
Published by EH.NET (July 2009) Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. New York: Penguin, 2008. v + 441 pp. $30 (hardcover), ISBN: 1594201929. Reviewed for EH.NET by Niv Horesh, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales. Harvard?s Niall Ferguson is perhaps best known for his […]
Mellon: An American Life
Published by EH.NET (December 2008) David Cannadine, Mellon: An American Life. New York: Vintage, 2008. xvi + 778 pp. $20 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0-307-38679-3. Reviewed for EH.NET by Robert Whaples, Department of Economics, Wake Forest University. During the dark days of the Great Depression, Andrew Mellon?s son, Paul, found this quatrain scribbled on a gas station […]
The Electric Vehicle: Technology and Expectations in the Automobile Age
Published by EH.NET (March 2007) Gijs Mom, The Electric Vehicle: Technology and Expectations in the Automobile Age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. xiii + 423 pp. $55 (hardcover), ISBN: 0-8018-7138-2. Reviewed for EH.NET by Staffan Hult?n, Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics. The early history of the automobile and the battle […]
The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster
Published by EH.NET (November 2006) ? Lawrence J. Vale and Thomas J. Campanella, editors, The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xiv + 376 pp. $25 (paperback), ISBN: 0-19-517583-2. Reviewed for EH.NET by Donald E. Frey, Department of Economics, Wake Forest University. This volume presents a set […]
The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance
Published by EH.NET (September 2006) Robert E. Wright, The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. vii + 210 pp. $25 (cloth), ISBN: 0-226-91026-1. Reviewed for EH.NET by Peter L. Rousseau, Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University. Robert E. Wright, hailing from New York University’s […]