In simple, elegant language, Hughes and Cain walk students through four centuries of political, social, and economic history, with a focus on laws and institutions and an emphasis on current economic topics that reflects the latest scholarship. Rich in both quantitative techniques and economic theory, American Economic History demonstrates how an understanding of our past can illuminate economic issues that face society today and in the future.

I. THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1607-1783. 1. Overseas Empire. 2. Colonial Development. 3. America on the Eve of Revolution. 4. Gaining Independence. II. THE NATIONAL PERIOD AND CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, 1783-1861. 5. Westward Expansion. 6. Population and Labor Force. 7. Law and the Rise of Classical American Capitalism. 8. Transportation, Internal Improvements, and Urbanization. 9. Agricultural Expansion: The Conflict of Two Systems on the Land. 10. The Debate Over Slavery. 11. The Early Industrial Sector. 12. The Financial System and the International Economy. III. THE RISE OF AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY, 1861-1914. 13. Economic Effects of the Civil War. 14. Railroads and Economic Development.15. Post-Civil War Agriculture. 16. Population Growth and the Atlantic Migration. 17. Industrialization and Urban Growth. 18. Big Business and Government Intervention. 19. Financial Developments, 1863-1914. 20. The Giant Economy and Its International Relations. 21. Labor and the Law. IV. THE EXPANSION OF FEDERAL POWER, 1914-1945. 22. The Command Economy Emerges: World War I. 23. "Normalcy": 1919-1929. 24. The Great Depression. 25. The New Deal. 26. The "Prosperity" of Wartime. V. BRAVE NEW WORLD: 1945-PRESENT. 27. From World War II to the New Frontier. 28. Labor and the Tertiary Sector. 29. Postwar Industry and Agriculture. 30. From the New Frontier to the New Millenium. 31. Does Our Past Have a Future?