“Matson’s survey is ideal for graduate students preparing for exams or for more advanced scholars seeking to make a foray into the field. . . . This book is a clarion call for economic historians to go forth and proclaim the good news: economic history still has something to tell us. In its division between historiography and history, it suggests that we need as many evangelists as practitioners if we are to bring economics to history’s masses.” —James Fichter, Common-Place

In recent years, scholars in a number of disciplines have focused their attention on understanding the early American economy. The result has been an outpouring of scholarship, some of it dramatically revising older methodologies and findings, and some of it charting entirely new territory—new subjects, new places, and new arenas of study that might not have been considered “economic” in the past.

The Economy of Early America enters this resurgent discussion of the early American economy by showcasing the work of leading scholars who represent a spectrum of historiographical and methodological viewpoints. Contributors include David Hancock, Russell Menard, Lorena Walsh, Christopher Tomlins, David Waldstreicher, Terry Bouton, Brooke Hunter, Daniel Dupre, John Majewski, Donna Rilling, and Seth Rockman as well as Cathy Matson.

The chapters in this volume challenge traditional views of what “economic history” encompasses by incorporating cultural and intellectual studies, political economy, and social history. Topics include the Atlantic economy, comparative regions of colonial and early national development, new economic institutions in America’s rapid ascent in the global economy, the nature of population and migration patterns, popular perceptions of credit and debt, age and gender roles within households, new labor and production relations, and servitude and slavery in comparative regional perspective.

The Economy of Early America is an important volume for the field of economic history, demonstrating the vitality of recent scholarship and charting new directions for future study.