We all know what happened in the City of Brotherly Love 240 years ago on July 4. Maybe we should also pay some attention to what happened two months later.
In our deeply unequal times, historian Edward O’Donnell reminds us, the life of the 19th century’s most important critic of concentrated wealth remains as relevant as ever.
Heiress Bunny Mellon didn’t promise us a rose garden. She gave us one. We would have been better off with more equality instead.
Back in 1776, public-spirited patriots emerged from the ranks of colonial America’s privileged. But our corporate elite today seems to offer up only thieving, tax-dodging parasites. Why such a contrast?
. . . we would have a fascinating, first-hand history of the roller-coaster first century of federal income taxation.
We today can take more than inspiration from the struggles against plutocracy progressives waged years ago. We can take a host of still cutting-edge policy proposals.
Great economic cataclysms have in the past knocked the super rich off their stride. Our Great Recession’s deep pockets, stunning new income data show, are bucking the historical tide.
Forty years ago, U.S. corporate honchos saw their power ebbing away — to a ragtag mob of long-hairs and loony social reformers. So they did what corporate honchos always do. They asked for a memo.