A brilliant young Ph.D. named Phillip Magness just finished his doctoral dissertation in the Ph.D. program in Public Policy at George Mason University.  The dissertation is an excellent new tariff history from the beginning of the republic up through the adoption of the income tax in 1913.  One of the most important contributions here is Phil’s demonstration of how utterly wrongheaded historians like James McPherson can be when they comment on such things as the role of tariffs in American history without the benefit of any education in the field of economics, even at the most basic levels.  He also shows how almost all historians who write on the subject rely mostly on the mushy and deceptive language of protectionist politicians.  (Alexander Hamilton does not come off in a very favorable light, nor do his main biographers).

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