Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation

A readable, enjoyable treatise that introduces the works of many economists operating under the Austrian approach. * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online * The authors have an important story to tell. Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War is well done and presents important economic concepts, analyses of the blockades, the efforts of both sides to finance the war, and the consequences of the war. This new text will be useful in courses on the Civil War and American economic history. -- Glenn Linden, Southern Methodist University An extremely penetrating work that broadens our understanding of the great sectional conflict we call the Civil Wara war that not only changed forever the cultural fabric of the United States but inexorably altered the government established by the Farmers. * Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture * Mark Thornton and Robert Ekelund, Jr. manage, within the covers of a slim volume, to supply fresh insights into the economic and political forces that led to war, contributed to the Confederacy's defeat, and shifted governmental power permanently toward the center. . . . Consistently spirited and thought-provoking, Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation is a distinctive addition to the literature on the Civil War and to economic history more generally. . . . [Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation] breaks new ground in applying neoclassical economic theory and public choice reasoning to the analysis of a pivotal and endlessly fascinating period in U.S. history. . . . Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation is must reading for public choice economists, economic historians, and students who want-or can be assigned to want-a concise, user-friendly introduction to economic principles and their application. -- William F. Shughart II, J. Fish Smith Professor in Public Choice, Utah State University * Public Choice * In concise and clear prose Professors Mark Thornton and Robert Ekelund use basic economics to explain the causes, outcome, and consequences of the Civil War. -- John Majewski, University of California, Santa Barbara * The Freeman: Ideas On Liberty * Want to know why the South lost the Civil War? The answer is in this delightful, scholarly book. -- Robert Tollison, Clemson University For readers unfamiliar with the Austrian approach to economics, the two authors offer a readable, enjoyable treatise that introduces the works of many economists operating under the Austrian approach. . . . The authors have capably introduced readers to the burgeoning corpus of Austrian analysis of the war. -- David G. Surdam * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online * Mark Thornton and Robert B. Ekelund, Jr. have written a concise synthesis of economic change during the Civil War. -- Jane Flaherty, Texas A&M University * H-Civwar *

Mark Thornton is senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and book review editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Robert B. Ekelund, Jr., is the Edward K. and Catherine L. Lowder Eminent Scholar at Auburn University and Vernon F. Taylor Visiting Distinguished Professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Chapter 1 Economic Interests and the Onset of the Civil War: The Tariff Chapter 2 The Union Blockade and Southern Strategy Chapter 3 Inflation, North and South Chapter 4 Consequences of the War