Late Nineteenth-Century American Development is an economist's attempt to interpret a critical period of US history, from Civil War to World War I. The questions raised have always been at the heart of American historiography. What accounts for the retardation up to the turn of the century? How did capital markets operate and what was their influence on the pace and pattern of our growth? What determined farm performance and what impact did that performance have on the economy as a whole? Yet while the questions raised in this book are familiar, the methods are not. This book blends traditional historical analysis with general equilibrium theory, modern macroeconomics and simulation analysis. The result is a provocative book of remarkable scope which offers a fresh interpretation of late nineteenth-century American growth.
