Gale Encyclopedia of United States Economic History

Targeting a high school and first- and second-year college audience, this easy-to-read work aims at supporting American history textbooks and providing a one- stop-shopping resource on all that comprises U.S. economic history–people, businesses, industries, events, movements, and trends–with a special emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. A similar specialized encyclopedia, Glenn Porter’s Encyclopedia of American Economic History (Scribner, 1980), now dated, presents lengthier essays on movements and ideas only and is intended for more educated lay readers. In contrast, the Gale source consists of a unique array of 1,003 distinctive entries, somewhat confusing in their sheer variety, alphabetically arranged and of various lengths. Half are brief economic terms and historical and geographical definitions, and the other half are era overviews, issues, biographies, state economic histories, historical events, and company and industry profiles with limited bibliographies. Ranging from laissez faire, the Boston Tea Party, the Cumberland Gap, the Santa Fe Trail to slavery, the utilities industry, and Rosie the Riveter, the topics covered were selected for inclusion by an advisory board of high school teachers and college and university professors. The two-volume reference commences with a 33-page economic chronology spanning 50,000 years and divided into ten historical eras with corresponding essays. Recommended for public and academic history collections as an expensive, but up-to-date and comprehensive addition to the literature.-Marilyn Rosenthal, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.