American Trade Policy: Fundamentals Everyone Should Know, 1800 - Present

This set of 4 lectures will examine America’s trade regimes dating back to the earliest years of the republic. We will examine how issues of tariffs, economic subsidies, economic development strategies and free trade have evolved and changed in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will explore competing visions of figures such as Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, William McKinley, William H. Taft, Cordell Hull, George Marshall, William Brock and, in the 21st century, Robert Zoellick and Peter Navarro. We will also examine how the attitudes of average Americans have shaped trade policies over time.