Phillip W. Magness

Phillip W. Magness of the conservative leaning American Institute for Economic Research has written several articles critiquing the much vaunted, and in reality much idiotic, 1619 Project by the New York Times. Here he collects those writings with a few more. Because some of these essays were first published in other venues, there is much overlap and repetition. Also, the original publications probably did not have footnotes, so footnotes seem to have been added. The footnotes are sloppily and inadequately done, and the citation style for economics is slipshod compared to the Chicago/Turabian standard in history. So, there is that. An editor could have been used, besides the odd footnotes, there were several minor errors in writing, spelling, punctuation, etc.

But, all said, these essays do mostly attack the 1619 Project on proper historical, historiographical, and economic grounds. The main gist is threefold, that the "New Historians of Capitalism" or NHC, those who say that modern capitalism was grounded, founded, and based on chattel slavery of African Americans: (1) do not properly define capitalism, because slavery is NOT capitalism, and they ignore slaveowners who detested free market capitalism; (2) some of the NHC writers use completely faulty economic and statistical evidence to make incorrect points about historical slavery and modern capitalism; and (3) the NHC historians ignore whole swathes of historiography on the economics of slavery, willfully ignorantly, (even to the point of denigrating Fogel and Engerman as "old white guys" who you needn't consider).

I disagree with the author's position on Lincoln and colonization. I think by the Spring of 1865 Lincoln was switching to giving black Americans citizenship and the men voting rights. He can both encourage colonization AND equality for the ones who don't want colonization. Anyway...

There are many good snippets of information here and there. It is good ammunition to fight back against the perversion that is the 1619 project. Slavery was bad, and an important part of American history, but slavery is not what America is about. This book helps.… (mere)

Professors Magness and Weissburg give a brief overview of the U.S. political process.

I no longer recall where or why this title was recommended to me. I was expecting a nonfiction audiobook, and then was surprised to find it was actually a series of lectures by two college professors. (Although loosely, I suppose you could consider this a book.) The pair talk about a number of topics related to government, pointing out that political science, public policy, administration, and history all have important roles to play in how government functions.

There was a lot of information contained with this 'book,' using real-life -- and sometimes current -- examples. it really did have some interesting food for thought, and I found that both professors (representing two different personal political opinions) made valid points. However, I felt like it was a little disjointed in terms of structure; one moment we're talking about the Iraq war, then Tammany Hall, and suddenly over to Hurricane Katrina. Overall, I would recommend if you want a little more detailed insight into government functions, but this shouldn't be your first (or only) stop.… (mere)