Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-zlgnt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-25T08:52:38.686Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where Is There Consensus Among American Economic Historians? The Results of a Survey on Forty Propositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2009

Robert Whaples
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109. Whaples@wfu.edu.

Abstract

This article examines where consensus does and does not exist among American economic historians by analyzing the results of a questionnaire mailed to 178 randomly selected members of the Economic History Association. The questions address many of the important debates in American economic history. The answers show consensus on a number of issues, but substantial disagreement in many areas—including the causes of the Great Depression and the aftermath of emancipation. They also expose some areas of disagreement between historians and economists.

Information

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Alston,Richard M.,Kearl,J. R., andVaughan,Michael B., “Is There a Consensus among Economists in the 1990s?”American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings,82 (051992), pp.203–9.Google Scholar
Anderson,Terry, andHill,Peter J., “Are Government Giveaways Really Free?” inMcCloskey,Donald, ed.,Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History (New York,1993).Google Scholar
Atack,Jeremy, andPassell,Peter,A New Economic View of American History from Colonial Times to 1940 (2nd edn.,New York,1994).Google Scholar
Beard,Charles A.,Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (New York,1915).Google Scholar
Beard,Charles A.,An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (2nd edn.,New York,1935).Google Scholar
Bils,Mark, “Tariff Protection and Production in the Early U.S. Cotton Textile Industry,” thisJournal,44 (121984), pp.1,033–45.Google Scholar
David,Paul et al. ,Reckoning With Slavery: A Critical Study in the Quantitative History of American Negro Slavery (New York,1976).Google Scholar
Egnal,Mark, andErnst,Joseph, “An Economic Interpretation of the American Revolution,”William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series29 (011972), pp.3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichengreen,Barry, “As Good as Gold—By What Standard?” inMcCloskey,Donald, ed.,Second Thoughts: Myths and Morals of U.S. Economic History (New York,1993).Google Scholar
Fearon,Peter,War, Prosperity and Depression: The U.S. Economy, 1917–1945 (Lawrence, KS,1987).Google Scholar
Fogel,Robert,Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History (Baltimore,1964).Google Scholar
Fogel,Robert, “Notes on the Social Savings Controversy,” thisJournal,39 (031979), pp.1–54.Google Scholar
Fogel,Robert, andEngerman,Stanley,Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery (New York,1974).Google Scholar
Fogel,Robert, andEngerman,Stanley, “Explaining the Relative Efficiency of Slave Agriculture in the Antebellum South,”American Economic Review,67 (061977), pp.275–96.Google Scholar
Friedman,Milton, andSchwartz,Anna J.,The Great Contraction, 1929–1933 (Princeton,1965).Google Scholar
Galenson,David, “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis,” thisJournal,44 (041984), pp.1–26.Google Scholar
Goldin,Claudia,Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (New York,1990).Google Scholar
Goldin,Claudia, andSokoloff,Kenneth, “The Relative Productivity Hypothesis of Industrialization: The American Case, 1820 to 1850,”Quarterly Journal of Economics,69 (081984), pp.461–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harley,C. Knick, “International Competitiveness of the Antebellum American Cotton Textile Industry,” thisJournal,52 (091992), pp.559–84.Google Scholar
Henretta,James, “Families and Farms: Mentalité in Pre-Industrial America,”William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series35 (011978), pp.3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgs,Robert,Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865–1914 (Chicago,1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones,Alice Hanson,Wealth of a Nation to Be: The American Colonies on the Eve of the Revolution (New York,1980).Google Scholar
Margo,Robert, “Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks: Comment and Further Evidence,”American Economic Review,74 (Sept.1984), pp.768–76.Google Scholar
Anne,Mayhew, “A Reappraisal of the Causes of Farm Protest in the United States, 1870–1900,” thisJournal,32 (061972), pp.464–75.Google Scholar
McCusker,John, andMenard,Russell,The Economy of British America, 1607–1789 (Chapel Hill,1985).Google Scholar
McGuire,Robert, “Economic Causes of Late Nineteenth Century Agrarian Unrest: New Evidence,” thisJournal,41 (121981), pp.835–52.Google Scholar
McGuire,Robert, andOhsfeldt,Robert, “An Economic Model of Voting Behavior over Specific Issues at the Constitutional Convention of 1787,” thisJournal,46 (031986), pp.79–111.Google Scholar
North,Douglass,The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790–1860 (New York,1961).Google Scholar
North,Douglass,Growth and Welfare in the American Past (New York,1966).Google Scholar
Ransom,Roger, andSutch,Richard,One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation (New York,1977).Google Scholar
Reid,Joseph D.Jr., “Economic Burden: Spark to the American Revolution?” thisJournal,38 (031978), pp.81–100.Google Scholar
Rockoff,Hugh, “The Free Banking Era: A Reexamination,”Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,6 (051974), pp.141–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romer,Christina, “New Estimates of Prewar Gross National Product and Unemployment,” thisJournal,46 (061986), pp.341–52.Google Scholar
Romer,Christina, “The Nation in Depression,”Journal of Economic Perspectives,7 (Spring1993), pp.19–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothenberg,Winifred B., “The Market and the Massachusetts Farmer, 1750–1855,” thisJournal,41 (061981), pp.283–314.Google Scholar
Temin,Peter,The Jacksonian Economy (New York,1969).Google Scholar
Temin,Peter,Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? (New York,1976).Google Scholar
Weir,David, “The Reliability of Historical Macroeconomic Data for Comparing Cyclical Stability,” thisJournal,46 (061986), pp.353–66.Google Scholar
Whaples,Robert, “Winning the Eight Hour Day,” thisJournal,50 (061990), pp.393–406.Google Scholar
Whaples,Robert, andBetts,Dianne C.,Historical Perspectives on the American Economy: Readings in American Economic History (New York,1994).Google Scholar
Whitten,David O., “The Depression of 1837: Incorporating New Ideas into Economic History Instruction—A Survey,” Paper presented at theSocial Science History Association meetings,Atlanta,1994.Google Scholar
Wright,Gavin, “The Economic Revolution in the American South,”Journal of Economic Perspectives,1 (Summer1987), pp.161–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar