The political crisis of the American state: the unsustainable state in a time of unraveling / Lawrence R. Jacobs, Desmond King -- Is inequality a threat to democracy? / John Ferejohn -- The resilient power of the states across the long nineteenth century: an inquiry into a pattern of American...

A disparity exists between mainstream perception and reality with regard to American economic history. There is widespread belief among the public, media, and even some scholars that the U.S. amassed its wealth and prosperity from the adoption of exclusively free-market principles from the onset...