Widespread academic use of the term "neoliberalism" is of surprisingly recent origin, dating to only the late 20th century. The vast and growing literature on this subject has nonetheless settled on an earlier origin story that depicts the term as self-selected moniker from the Walter Lippmann...

John Maynard Keynes's 1930 essay ‘Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren' is celebrated today as both an important transitional work in his economic theory and for its famously optimistic prediction of a distant future age of leisure, made against the backdrop of the Great Depression....

Drawing upon insights from public choice political economy and an examination of historical records, this paper posits an explanation for the causes of secession by the original seven members of the Confederacy in 1860-61. Secession is examined as a Hirschman exit, intended primarily to shore up...

Historical interpretations of the 16th Amendment usually attribute its genesis to a progressive intellectual movement aimed at addressing growing wealth inequality and the claimed excesses of 19th century “laissez-faire.” This article presents an alternative theory rooted in an interest...

In this article, we offer a revision to the top income share series produced by Piketty and Saez (2003) for the United States, focusing upon the period prior to and including the Second World War. The inequality estimates for these years form the left-side of a century-long U-curve that has...

This essay reviews the "New History of Capitalism" (NHC) literature with specific attention to its claims about the relationship between capitalism and slavery. While others have critiqued severe deficiencies in the empirical dimensions of this literature, I focus upon the shortcomings in its...

This paper examines the neglected interrelationship between the American System school of economic thought and the controversial policy of black colonization abroad, as developed by Henry Clay and his political progeny. By examining Clay's version of colonization as an extension of his political...