Preface -- Introduction -- An overview of the U.S. tax system -- Fairness -- Taxes and economic prosperity -- Simplicity and enforceability -- Elements of fundamental reform -- Consumption tax alternatives -- Starting from here -- A voter's guide to the tax policy debate -- Notes -- References...

"A gripping account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British...