Abraham Lincoln and the Role of Government in the Economy (Re-broadcast)

I'm Michael Klein, executive editor of Econofact, a nonpartisan, web-based publication of the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

At Econofact, we bring key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies, publishing work from leading economists across the country.

You can learn more about us and see our work at www.econofact.org. President Lincoln concluded the Gettysburg Address with the phrase, This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

There's a great focus on the phrase, a new birth of freedom, as pointing to the Emancipation Proclamation.

In his new book, Ways and Means, Roger Lowenstein points out that, for the people, also represented an important pivot, one towards the view that the government should provide the means through which ordinary working people could better their lives.

For example, by incentivizing the construction of railroads, and through the expansion of higher education with land-grant universities.

And in this way, the government would promote economic development and spread prosperity beyond the rich industrialists of the North and the owners of large plantations in the South.

The idea that a robust federal state could play an important role in advancing the economic fortunes of a nation, and especially of fostering greater economic equality, has clear resonance today.

In telling the story of the financing of the Civil War and the economic policies of the Lincoln administration, Roger offers a mirror to the current debates over the role of government in building infrastructure and helping people finance their education.

And he does so in a compelling and entertaining way, just as he did in his 2015 book, America's Bank, The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve.

Thank you for the book, and thank you for coming on Accountifact Chats.