Overview

For a while, it seemed impossible to lose money on real estate. But then the bubble burst. The financial sector was paralyzed and the economy contracted. State and federal governments struggled to pay their domestic and foreign creditors. Washington was incapable of decisive action. The country seethed with political and social unrest. In America's First Great Depression, Alasdair Roberts describes how the United States dealt with the economic and political crisis that followed the Panic of 1837. As Roberts shows, the two decades that preceded the Panic had marked a democratic surge in the United States. However, the nation's commitment to democracy was tested severely during this crisis. Foreign lenders questioned whether American politicians could make the unpopular decisions needed on spending and taxing. State and local officials struggled to put down riots and rebellion. A few wondered whether this was the end of America's democratic experiment. Roberts explains how the country's woes were complicated by its dependence on foreign trade and investment, particularly with Britain. Aware of the contemporary relevance of this story, Roberts examines how the country responded to the political and cultural aftershocks of 1837, transforming its political institutions to strike a new balance between liberty and social order, and uneasily coming to terms with its place in the global economy.

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Reviews

<p> America's First Great Depression is an intriguing history of American financial policy in the 1830s and 1840s. Alasdair Roberts s contention that international financial considerations shaped U.S. policymaking is well sustained, the writing is sprightly, and the argument is nicely documented with a wealth of judiciously culled evidence. Richard R. John, Columbia University, author of Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications

<p> Alasdair Roberts's poignant yet balanced account of the financial, economic, and political crises of the 1830s and 1840s provides us with a distant mirror reflecting our current travails. By not knowing and learning from history, we continue to make the same mistakes our ancestors did. If you want to complete your education, America's First Great Depression is a good place to begin. -Richard Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, New York University, coauthor of A History of Interest Rates

Alasdair Roberts has written a thoughtful and timely book about how Americans in the past responded to global economic and political forces beyond their control. Roberts masterfully reinterprets the period for historians, but his goal is not primarily historical. Political scientists, policymakers, and citizens have much to learn from the economic crisis following 1837. Johann N. Neem, Political Science Quarterly (Summer 2013)

<p> Roberts examines the financial, political, and social upheavals that occurred in the United States in the decade following the Panic of 1837, which he calls theFirst Great Depression. The years leading up to the panic, he says, were a time of boom marked by geographic expansion, the near elimination of the national debt, states borrowing large sums for improvement projects, and land values that appeared to be rising without end. He explains that the panic caused a deep economic depression that resulted in loan defaults by nine states, federal gridlock, a breakdown of law and order, a loss of faith in banks, and a slow recovery forthe U.S. economy, which came back only after the Mexican War. Parallels to the country's current economic recession are clear throughout the text, and Roberts makes explicit comparisons in his conclusion. This timely book will be of great use not just to students of economic history but also to readers who wish to findhistorical precedent for today's uncertain, turbulent times. -Library Journal

Author Information

Alasdair Roberts is the Jerome L. Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also a Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration. He is the author of America's First Great Depression andThe End of Protest: How Free-Market Capitalism Learned to Control Dissent, bothfrom Cornell, The Logic of Discipline, and Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age.

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