Images of identity Book

Larson looks at a very important phenomenon in the early republic, although it's kind of boring on the surface. This book argues that positive use of government for constructive purposes was an assumed power. Internal Improvements charts how this assumption transformed during the nineteenth century into a myth that the US government was always laissez faire. This argument is very much a reaction against Reagan era politics.

The issue of positive government hit the rocks because the federal government was unable to overcome initial expectations about a virtuous republic. As Wood discusses, American politicians learn the hard way that self-interest has more staying power in politics. Those who wanted positive government vs those who wanted more of a protector of market forces didn't win any political arguments, but the failure of certain canal projects scandalized later ones. Ultimately by the 1820s Americans increasingly fall back on market forces to determine the "natural" or "inevitable" result. Probably the most important part of this process was Madison's rejection of the Bonus Bill which would have created a permanent fund for Internal Improvements. Politicians saw the necessity for such an institution, they were (rightly) afraid that such a permanent fund would inevitably be corrupted, enlarged, and upset the nation's tenuous sectional balance. By the Civil War the meaning of the Revolution had basically become a defense of property rights (really? Horowitz) and entrepreneurial freedom. The ultimate consequence was a post-bellum system where railroad barons like Jay Gould (White-Railroaded) could put the entire nation at its feet, which was certainly not the intention of the founders.

Ultimately forwards the argument that the Federal Government is necessary for order and that people like Madison are good.