Protective tariffs were part of American life long before the era of NAFTA and GATT. In the late nineteenth century, the "tariff question" was one of the most controversial issues of the day. As Joanne Reitano shows in this far-reaching study, the ensuing debate was anything but an empty exercise in political rhetoric occupying only politicians and lobbyists. The tariff was of central concern to a broad cross section of people because of its perceived relationship to immediate economic problems, such as wages, prices, and trusts. In fact, it became a means for many Americans to wrestle with the implications of the country's rapid growth and the impact of industrial capitalism on American life. Reitano focuses on the election year of 1888, when the tariff was adopted as a cause célèbre by President Grover Cleveland, Congress, the two major parties, and the press. At the heart of the debate was the Mills Bill for tariff reduction. Although the bill failed to pass, Reitano finds in the rancorous public debate a barometer of changes in the American mind in the Gilded Age. She carefully blends intellectual, political, economic, and social issues through analyses of the Congressional Record, press coverage of the debate, academic and polemical literature, political cartoons, and the presidential campaign. Ultimately, Reitano contends that ideas about political economy have always been central to the American mind. They were so in the Gilded Age as they are today.

A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year: “Tells the history of American trade policy . . . [A] grand narrative [that] also debunks trade-policy myths.” —Economist Should the United States be open to commerce with other countries, or should it protect domestic industries from foreign competition? This question has been the source of bitter political conflict throughout American history. Such conflict was inevitable, James Madison argued in the Federalist Papers, because trade policy involves clashing economic interests. The struggle between the winners and losers from trade has always been fierce because dollars and jobs are at stake: depending on what policy is chosen, some industries, farmers, and workers will prosper, while others will suffer. Douglas A. Irwin’s Clashing over Commerce is the most authoritative and comprehensive history of US trade policy to date, offering a clear picture of the various economic and political forces that have shaped it. From the start, trade policy divided the nation—first when Thomas Jefferson declared an embargo on all foreign trade and then when South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over excessive taxes on imports. The Civil War saw a shift toward protectionism, which then came under constant political attack. Then, controversy over the Smoot-Hawley tariff during the Great Depression led to a policy shift toward freer trade, involving trade agreements that eventually produced the World Trade Organization. Irwin makes sense of this turbulent history by showing how different economic interests tend to be grouped geographically, meaning that every proposed policy change found ready champions and opponents in Congress. Deeply researched and rich with insight and detail, Clashing over Commerce provides valuable and enduring insights into US trade policy past and present. “Combines scholarly analysis with a historian’s eye for trends and colorful details . . . readable and illuminating, for the trade expert and for all Americans wanting a deeper understanding of America’s evolving role in the global economy.” —National Review “Magisterial.” —Foreign Affairs

The years between the Wars saw rapid and far-reaching changes to the character and distribution of the world’s trade. Governments of the world attempted to mould and control their own economies, and economic nationalism grew to unseen levels. This book, first published in 1938, is the comprehensive examination of the European tariffs of the time, and it traces their effects upon the actual course of trade, and in so doing, is one of the few factual studies on the reality of tariffs.