William McKinley, Apostle of Protectionism
William McKinley, Apostle of Protectionism

Author: Quentin R. Skrabec

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 087586578X

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This biography, focused on McKinley''s unusual view of protectionism, a labor-business alliance, and American exceptionalism, offers striking parallels to today as the US struggles to define its international role and to determine the best blend of free trade, protectionism, and immigration. William McKinley was the first US president to address globalization; his legacy in protectionism and immigrant labor offer lessons for the current era. He orchestrated an alliance between big business and the American worker that ushered in one of the greatest periods of growth ever known in the US economy. Yet McKinley has been in the shadow of his successor Theodore Roosevelt for over a hundred years. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, McKinley had forged a tariff bill in 1888 that united a nation that was still divided between North and South, East and West. His continued efforts to support free trade, protected by managed markets in the tradition of Henry Clay, and worker benefits like those provide by George Westinghouse, led to a great economic compromise. Further, with revolutionary, visionary rhetoric laden with America''s economic manifest destiny he appealed to everyone from the steelworkers of Pittsburgh to the New York bankers. He articulated a uniting philosophy: Free trade in the United States is founded upon a community of equalities and reciprocities...[F]ree foreign trade admits the foreigner to equal privileges with our citizens. It invites the product of foreign cheap labor to this market in competition with the domestic, representing better paid labor [albeit with tariffs to protect that domestic product]. McKinley''s vision built the industrial base of the nation. By the end of his presidency the American steel, glass, rubber, oil, machinery and electrical appliance industries dominated the world. He was one of America''s most popular presidents. As his funeral train crossed the nation in 1901, factory workers and captains of industry alike stood along the rails to mourn him. Never since has such a political alliance between labor and management been forged. He was the last president to build a voting alliance between laborers, immigrant workers, and capitalists. That alliance was marred by famous labor strikes and the building of great trusts, yet he still managed to sweep the labor votes in the great industrial centers due to his belief in reciprocity and protectionism. McKinley''s role as a dinner pail Republican offers insights into how America can approach today''s globalization with the best interests of the home team in mind.

Minorities and Reconstructive Coalitions
Minorities and Reconstructive Coalitions

Author: Willie Gin

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-07-06

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1351981854

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Through comparative and historical analysis, the book shows that reconstructive coalitions, such as labor and pan-Christian moral movements, affect minority incorporation and bring Catholics and Protestants together under new identities and significantly improving Catholic standing. It provides overviews of the history of Catholics in Australia, Canada, and the United States while at the same time advancing unique arguments about the impact of coalitions on minority politics.

Iron Artisans
Iron Artisans

Author: Ronald L. Lewis

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2023-04-04

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 0822989689

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America’s emergence as a global industrial superpower was built on iron and steel, and despite their comparatively small numbers, no immigrant group played a more strategic role per capita in advancing basic industry than Welsh workers and managers. They immigrated in surges synchronized with the stage of America’s industrial development, concentrating in the coal and iron centers of Pennsylvania and Ohio. This book explores the formative influence of the Welsh on the American iron and steel industry and the transnational cultural spaces they created in mill communities in the tristate area—the greater upper Ohio Valley, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania—including boroughs of Allegheny County, such as Homestead and Braddock. Focusing on the intersection of transnational immigration history, ethnic history, and labor history, Ronald Lewis analyzes continuity and change, and how Americanization worked within a small, relatively privileged, working-class ethnic group.

The 'Conspiracy' of Free Trade
The 'Conspiracy' of Free Trade

Author: Marc-William Palen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-02-09

Total Pages: 562

ISBN-13: 1316477851

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Following the Second World War, the United States would become the leading 'neoliberal' proponent of international trade liberalization. Yet for nearly a century before, American foreign trade policy was dominated by extreme economic nationalism. What brought about this pronounced ideological, political, and economic about-face? How did it affect Anglo-American imperialism? What were the repercussions for the global capitalist order? In answering these questions, The 'Conspiracy' of Free Trade offers the first detailed account of the controversial Anglo-American struggle over empire and economic globalization in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. The book reinterprets Anglo-American imperialism through the global interplay between Victorian free-trade cosmopolitanism and economic nationalism, uncovering how imperial expansion and economic integration were mired in political and ideological conflict. Beginning in the 1840s, this conspiratorial struggle over political economy would rip apart the Republican Party, reshape the Democratic Party, and redirect Anglo-American imperial expansion for decades to come.

U.S. Trade Issues
U.S. Trade Issues

Author: Alfred E. Eckes Jr.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13:

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An expert analysis of key issues, individuals, and developments in U.S. trade policy from national, regional, and global perspectives. What is the proper balance between free trade and protecting the American economy? U.S. Trade Issues: A Reference Handbook is a timely exploration of this vital and politically sensitive question, one that emerged as a crucial issue in the 2008 presidential election. Written by a former chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission, it provides an authoritative, accessible, and unbiased review of the defining events, principal players, and key controversies in U.S. trade policy. U.S. Trade Issues describes American trade policies from the days of the republic to the present, focusing most intently on the post-World War II era. It explores a number of current issues, including the Doha Round of Multilateral Negotiations, NAFTA, and the president's trade authority. In addition, the handbook looks at American trade policy in the context of an increasingly globalized world economy.

The Divided Era
The Divided Era

Author: Thomas Del Beccaro

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group

Published: 2015-05-26

Total Pages: 559

ISBN-13: 1626342008

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The larger our governments, the greater the competition for their spoils—therefore our divisions. “There simply is so much at stake today. As a result, our governments that benefit so many, employ so many, and tax so widely—in short our governments that pick so many winners and losers—are understandably subject to an intense competition for their control.” So writes author Thomas Del Beccaro in this fascinating study of the history of political unity and division in the US, from the Revolution to the adoption of the Constitution, the Civil War through Reconstruction, The Gilded Age to our present Divided Era. While we have had our conflicts over large issues and the role of government in the past, and still do today, an emerging cause of the partisanship and division we now know today did not exist at our nation’s founding. Our governments were smaller, levied minimal taxes, and thus held out fewer spoils for citizens to fight over. Can the US find its way back to being a less divided country? Yes, says Del Beccaro, but only if citizens understand the growing source of our divisions: ever larger governments. Americans must demand that government shrink back to a less divisive size and scope and support leaders capable of setting unifying goals—for which Del Beccaro offers five key strategies. In fact, the consequences of not slimming the behemoth governments—federal, state, and local—will only lead to an ever widening divide, and more acrimonious and harmful partisanship. The Divided Era lays out the case for smaller government, more responsive political leadership, and ultimately a more cohesive citizenry.

The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business
The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business

Author: Quentin R. Skrabec Jr.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2012-05-04

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13:

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This reference book details the top 100 groundbreaking events in the history of American business, featuring case studies of successful companies who challenged traditional operating paradigms, historical perspectives on labor laws, management practices, and economic climates, and an examination of the impact of these influences on today's business practices. Throughout history, important commercial developments in the United States have made it possible for American companies to leverage tough economic conditions to survive—even thrive in a volatile marketplace. This reference book examines the top 100 groundbreaking events in the history of American business and illustrates their influence on the labor laws, business practices, and management methodologies of corporate America today. The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business: An Encyclopedia depicts the chronological order of events contributing to the evolution of American business, with an emphasis on the commercial innovations of each period. The book explores the origins of successful brands, including Apple, Wal-Mart, and Heinz; demonstrates the successful collaboration between public and private sectors illustrated by the Erie Canal, Hoover Dam, and the interstate highway system; and depicts the commercial impact of major economic events from the Panic of 1857 to the Great Recession of 2010.

The Presidents and the Constitution
The Presidents and the Constitution

Author: Ken Gormley

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2016-05-10

Total Pages: 711

ISBN-13: 1479839906

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Shines new light on America's brilliant constitutional and presidential history, from George Washington to Barack Obama. In this sweepingly ambitious volume, the nation’s foremost experts on the American presidency and the U.S. Constitution join together to tell the intertwined stories of how each American president has confronted and shaped the Constitution. Each occupant of the office—the first president to the forty-fourth—has contributed to the story of the Constitution through the decisions he made and the actions he took as the nation’s chief executive. By examining presidential history through the lens of constitutional conflicts and challenges, The Presidents and the Constitution offers a fresh perspective on how the Constitution has evolved in the hands of individual presidents. It delves into key moments in American history, from Washington’s early battles with Congress to the advent of the national security presidency under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, to reveal the dramatic historical forces that drove these presidents to action. Historians and legal experts, including Richard Ellis, Gary Hart, Stanley Kutler and Kenneth Starr, bring the Constitution to life, and show how the awesome powers of the American presidency have been shapes by the men who were granted them. The book brings to the fore the overarching constitutional themes that span this country’s history and ties together presidencies in a way never before accomplished.

The Presidents and the Constitution, Volume One
The Presidents and the Constitution, Volume One

Author: Ken Gormley

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1479802050

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Shines a light on the constitutional issues that confronted and shaped each presidency from George Washington to the Progressive Era Drawing from the monumental The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, published in 2016, the nation’s foremost experts in the American presidency and the US Constitution join together to tell the intertwined stories of how the first twenty-seven distinctive American presidents have confronted and shaped the Constitution and thus defined the most powerful office in human history. From George Washington to William Howard Taft, The Presidents and the Constitution, Volume 1 illuminates the evolving American presidency in a unique way—through the lens of the Constitution itself. Arranged chronologically by president, the book examines the constitutional issues confronting each president in the context of the personalities driving historical events.The contributors illustrate the extensive powers of the American presidency in domestic and foreign affairs, showing how they have been used by the men who were granted them, and brings to light the overarching constitutional themes that span this country’s history and tie each presidency to the other branches of government.

The Republic for Which It Stands
The Republic for Which It Stands

Author: Richard White

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-08-04

Total Pages: 964

ISBN-13: 0190619066

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The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multivolume history of the American nation. In the newest volume in the series, The Republic for Which It Stands, acclaimed historian Richard White offers a fresh and integrated interpretation of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age as the seedbed of modern America. At the end of the Civil War the leaders and citizens of the victorious North envisioned the country's future as a free-labor republic, with a homogenous citizenry, both black and white. The South and West were to be reconstructed in the image of the North. Thirty years later Americans occupied an unimagined world. The unity that the Civil War supposedly secured had proved ephemeral. The country was larger, richer, and more extensive, but also more diverse. Life spans were shorter, and physical well-being had diminished, due to disease and hazardous working conditions. Independent producers had become wage earners. The country was Catholic and Jewish as well as Protestant, and increasingly urban and industrial. The "dangerous" classes of the very rich and poor expanded, and deep differences -- ethnic, racial, religious, economic, and political -- divided society. The corruption that gave the Gilded Age its name was pervasive. These challenges also brought vigorous efforts to secure economic, moral, and cultural reforms. Real change -- technological, cultural, and political -- proliferated from below more than emerging from political leadership. Americans, mining their own traditions and borrowing ideas, produced creative possibilities for overcoming the crises that threatened their country. In a work as dramatic and colorful as the era it covers, White narrates the conflicts and paradoxes of these decades of disorienting change and mounting unrest, out of which emerged a modern nation whose characteristics resonate with the present day.