(Source: University of Chicago Press)
The University
of Chicago Press has published a new book on the constitutional politics of
national banking in the US between 1791 and 1832.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Bank of the
United States sparked several rounds of intense debate over the meaning of the
Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause, which authorizes the federal
government to make laws that are “necessary” for exercising its other powers.
Our standard account of the national bank controversy, however, is incomplete.
The controversy was much more dynamic than a two-sided debate over a single
constitutional provision and was shaped as much by politics as by law.
With Reconstructing the National Bank Controversy, Eric Lomazoff offers a far more robust account of the constitutional politics of national banking between 1791 and 1832. During that time, three forces—changes within the Bank itself, growing tension over federal power within the Republican coalition, and the endurance of monetary turmoil beyond the War of 1812 —drove the development of our first major debate over the scope of federal power at least as much as the formal dimensions of the Constitution or the absence of a shared legal definition for the word “necessary.” These three forces—sometimes alone, sometimes in combination—repeatedly reshaped the terms on which the Bank’s constitutionality was contested. Lomazoff documents how these three dimensions of the polity changed over time and traces the manner in which they periodically led federal officials to adjust their claims about the Bank’s constitutionality. This includes the emergence of the Coinage Clause—which gives Congress power to “coin money, regulate the value thereof”—as a novel justification for the institution. He concludes the book by explaining why a more robust account of the national bank controversy can help us understand the constitutional basis for modern American monetary politics.
With Reconstructing the National Bank Controversy, Eric Lomazoff offers a far more robust account of the constitutional politics of national banking between 1791 and 1832. During that time, three forces—changes within the Bank itself, growing tension over federal power within the Republican coalition, and the endurance of monetary turmoil beyond the War of 1812 —drove the development of our first major debate over the scope of federal power at least as much as the formal dimensions of the Constitution or the absence of a shared legal definition for the word “necessary.” These three forces—sometimes alone, sometimes in combination—repeatedly reshaped the terms on which the Bank’s constitutionality was contested. Lomazoff documents how these three dimensions of the polity changed over time and traces the manner in which they periodically led federal officials to adjust their claims about the Bank’s constitutionality. This includes the emergence of the Coinage Clause—which gives Congress power to “coin money, regulate the value thereof”—as a novel justification for the institution. He concludes the book by explaining why a more robust account of the national bank controversy can help us understand the constitutional basis for modern American monetary politics.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric Lomazoff is
assistant professor of political science at Villanova University.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Getting the Ship out of the Bottle
1. Varieties of Strict Interpretation
2. “Banco Mania” and Institutional Drift
3. “The Great Regulating Wheel” and Institutional Conversion
4. More Than a Constitutional Rerun
5. The Compromise of 1816
6. McCulloch (1819) in the Shadow of the Compromise
7. A Tale of Two Clauses
Conclusion: A Revisionist Bank Narrative—Lessons Timely and Timeless
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Getting the Ship out of the Bottle
1. Varieties of Strict Interpretation
2. “Banco Mania” and Institutional Drift
3. “The Great Regulating Wheel” and Institutional Conversion
4. More Than a Constitutional Rerun
5. The Compromise of 1816
6. McCulloch (1819) in the Shadow of the Compromise
7. A Tale of Two Clauses
Conclusion: A Revisionist Bank Narrative—Lessons Timely and Timeless
Notes
Bibliography
Index
More information
here
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