| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Economy of Early America: Historical Perspectives and New Directions. Ed. by Cathy Matson. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. viii, 380 pp. $55.00, ISBN 0-271-02711-8.)

Over twenty years ago, John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard, in The Economy of British America, 1607–1789 (1985), summarized work on the economic history of early America in a broad Atlantic perspective and made plentiful suggestions about which directions the field might move in the future. They included much analysis and data on the staples approach to early American economic history and paid particular attention to analysis of regions, including the West Indies as well as mainland colonial British America. The book under review is the first collection of essays since the McCusker and Menard volume to update the state of that area of American economic history. It is no accident that its title echoes the earlier one. Cathy Matson's volume, however, is somewhat different from The Economy of British America, 1607–1789: it is less wedded to a transatlantic perspective; it is not organized into thematic sections; it is fuller on the early national period; and it has many authors, with recent doctoral students vying for place with more seasoned practitioners.

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