Taxing America
Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975

Taxing America, first published in 1999, offers an interpretation of the American state between 1945 and 1975 by tracing the career of Wilbur D. Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1958 to 1974. Blending methodological insights from history, political science, and sociology, Julian Zelizer provides one of the first comparative histories of income taxation, Social Security, and Medicare in this study of the crucial role Mills played in negotiating between the tax policy community and Congress. Taxing America lays out four innovative arguments about the expansion of the state during the postwar period; Congress played a crucial role in the institutionalization of the state after World War II, policy communities helped encourage policymaking, taxation was central to postwar liberalism and its domestic agenda, and a fragile alliance between influential fiscal conservatives and the state was instrumental in expanding support of the policies of the tax community.

Reviews & endorsements

'… a provocative study of congressional politics from the end of World War II to the early 1970s … an essential read for anyone interested [in] the development of the post-war American state … this volume is a valuable tool in understanding the rapid growth of the United States in the nineteenth century … will be unavoidable for any serious scholar of the period.' Business History

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Product details

• Date Published: January 2001
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521795449
• length: 402 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 23 mm
• weight: 0.59kg
• availability: Available