EconAir

  As that great comic strip character Pogo said: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us. Introduction   Happy Birthday America! Democracy and individual liberties have survived for 250 years. Slavery was eliminated after a long and bloody civil war. The right to vote and civil liberties were extended to all Americans. America innovated the Industrial/Information Revolution and made the country the largest and most technologically-advanced economy in the world. In the 20 th  century, America opposed and helped defeat authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. America was an inspiration to all people who opposed tyranny and oppression. From 1607 onwards, America was a special country built by immigrants and their descendants.   This celebration should commemorate the 250 th  birthday of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which stated the basic rights of Americans and denounced the “tyranny” of King George. The preamble is a statement of the ideals of individ...

Roman Legion Why Study Rome? Americans have focused on comparisons between Rome and America twice in American history.  The first time was during the period from before the Revolution to after the ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, when the founding fathers and others looked to the Roman Republic for ideas and inspiration on how to structure the new government. After the American Revolution, the founding fathers, having read the Roman authors detailing the collapse of the Roman republic, worried about internal threats to the survival of their new republic.   The second time was when the United States became a superpower, especially after WWII, and then again after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Commentators compared America to the Roman Empire at the height of its power. There was some discussion about how America became a permanent warfare state and how it affected domestic democracy and civil society. ...

  Earliest known photograph of slaves and cotton, around 1850 Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, December 6, 2019 A New Nation, America from 1789 to 1860 If you study American history from 1789 to 1860 (just before the start of the Civil War), the political history is very complicated. But remember what caused most of these political conflicts and uneasy compromises - the dynamic changes in the underlying economy. Two in particular – the spectacular increase in slave-produced cotton and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in America. They were related.   What is the Industrial Revolution? At its heart it is power-driven metal machinery producing huge quantities of goods. At first, the power was supplied by steam engines and water wheels. Later, in the 20 th  century, electricity. All of this used huge amounts of fossil fuels – first coal, later oil and natural gas were added. America had huge quantities of all three.   A trend that continued from colonial time...