1st Edition
Roots of American Economic Growth 1607-1861 An Essay on Social Causation
First Published in 2005. In this book, the author seeks to apply a self-described broad approach to American economic growth and to place the process within the mainstream of American history. This approach establishes that economic growth involves far more than economics; most students of growth view that process as one which cuts across the boundaries of the disciplines within the social sciences. After a brief introduction of the subject of the book, Bruchey further discusses the need for such guidance and tries to make clear what it is that has directed his own path in this field.
1. The Matter of method
2. The Dependent years: I
i. The question of colonial economic growth
ii. Colonial economic expansion
iii. Land
iv. Production for subsistence and for market
v. The Planters: sources of operating capital
vi. The planters: the question of capital losses
3. The dependent years: II
i. The Protestant ethic
ii.The merchants
iii. 'Political capitalism'
iv. Social Structure
v. The role of government
4. Economic Growth, 1790-1861
i. Central versus local control
ii. The Constitution and the national market
iii. The national debt
iv. The development program of Robert Morris
v. Other early interest in internal improvements
vi. Hamilton's program
vii. The legislation of the 1790s
viii. Federal legislation adn community will
ix. Later federal aids to development
6. The Shift from Federal Aid
i. State aid to development
ii. The quasi-public corporation
iii. Foreign investment in the United States
iv. Corporate expansion
7. The Private Sector
i. Private sourecs of capital funds
ii. The formation of the national market
iii. the origins of technological trade in industry and agriculture
8. The Social and Cultural Dimension
i. Education
ii. Values and social structure
9. Epilogue
Biography
Bruchey, Stuart
