"A Portrait of America describes our nation's changing population and examines some of its most pressing contemporary challenges, ranging from poverty and economic inequality to racial tensions and health disparities, through a demographic lens. Specifically, chapters cover the following topics:...

PrefaceAcknowledgments -- Introduction the political economy of currency choice -- A theory of currency policy preferences -- The United States : from greenbacks to gold, 1862-79 -- The United States : silver threats among the gold, 1880-96 -- European monetary integration : from bretton woods...

"Americans today face no shortage of threats to their financial well-being, such as job and retirement insecurity, health care costs, and spiraling college tuition. While one might expect that these concerns would motivate people to become more politically engaged on the issues, this often...

Introduction / William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo -- Business organization and internal governance. Revisiting American exceptionalism: democracy and the regulation of corporate governance: the case of nineteenth-century Pennsylvania in comparative context / Naomi R. Lamoreaux -- Corporate...