This was the first book to put the American federal income tax into its historical and political context. Acclaimed upon publication as a necessary supplement to the work of Seligman and Seidman, it is still an essential work. Erwin R. Griswald was among the first to recognize this book's value. In the Harvard Law Review he wrote "[t]here is very little in this book that will help a lawyer win a case...[y]et there is much of practical value, a clear picture of the forest which might otherwise escape the lawyer bent on dissecting the trees." He predicted correctly that "[t]here is a mass of fact and comment that will make the book a standard work of reference for many a year to come" (53:1218).

A collection of essays on the modern state's role in producing the knowledge base required for economic policy-making.

Introduction: This book explores the long history of American taxation during times of war. As political scientist David Mayhew recently observed, since it's founding in 1789, the United States has conducted hot wars for some 38 years, occupied the South militarily for a decade, waged the Cold War for several decades, and staged countless smaller actions against Indian tribes or foreign powers. The cost of these activities has been immense, with important and lasting consequences for the tax system, the economy, and the nation's political structure. By focusing on tax legislation, we hope to identify some of these consequences. But we are not interested in simply recounting statutory details. Rather, we hope to illuminate the politics of war taxation, with a special focus on the influence of arguments concerning "shaped sacrifice" in shaping wartime tax policy. Moreover, we aim to shed light on a less examined aspect of this history by offering a detailed account of wartime opposition to increased taxes.