Liberty and coercion : the paradox of American government from the founding to the present
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Bibliographic Information
Liberty and coercion : the paradox of American government from the founding to the present
Princeton University Press, 2018, c2015
- : paper
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Note
"Second printing, and first paperback printing, 2018"--T.p. verso
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
American governance is burdened by a paradox. On the one hand, Americans don't want "big government" meddling in their lives; on the other hand, they have repeatedly enlisted governmental help to impose their views regarding marriage, abortion, religion, and schooling on their neighbors. These contradictory stances on the role of public power have paralyzed policymaking and generated rancorous disputes about government's legitimate scope. How did we reach this political impasse? Historian Gary Gerstle, looking at two hundred years of U.S. history, argues that the roots of the current crisis lie in two contrasting theories of power that the Framers inscribed in the Constitution. One theory shaped the federal government, setting limits on its power in order to protect personal liberty. Another theory molded the states, authorizing them to go to extraordinary lengths, even to the point of violating individual rights, to advance the "good and welfare of the commonwealth." The Framers believed these theories could coexist comfortably, but conflict between the two has largely defined American history.
Gerstle shows how national political leaders improvised brilliantly to stretch the power of the federal government beyond where it was meant to go--but at the cost of giving private interests and state governments too much sway over public policy. The states could be innovative, too. More impressive was their staying power. Only in the 1960s did the federal government, impelled by the Cold War and civil rights movement, definitively assert its primacy. But as the power of the central state expanded, its constitutional authority did not keep pace. Conservatives rebelled, making the battle over government's proper dominion the defining issue of our time. From the Revolution to the Tea Party, and the Bill of Rights to the national security state, Liberty and Coercion is a revelatory account of the making and unmaking of government in America.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Part I Foundations, 1780s-1860s 1 A Liberal Central State Emerges 17 2 The States and Their Police Power 55 Part II Improvisations, 1860s-1920s 3 Strategies of Liberal Rule 89 4 Lessons of Total War 125 5 Parties, Money, Corruption 149 Part III Compromises, 1920s-1940s 6 Agrarian Protest and the New Liberal State 185 7 Reconfiguring Labor-Capital Relations 217 Part IV American Leviathan, 1940s-2010s 8 An Era of Near-Permanent War 251 9 Breaking the Power of the States 275 10 Conservative Revolt 311 Conclusion 345 Notes 353 Index 437
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