Growth and Welfare in the American Past: A New Economic History

Douglas C North is a Nobel winning economist and a fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. His economic history of the United States takes a unique slant on the country's development. While acknowledging the idea that America was in part transformed by a combination of dirt farmers, slave labor and greed, North's theory is that the government investment made the difference. In North's opinion, the development of the highway infrastructure, the electric grid, water management and agricultural research has had more effect on the development of the country any of the myths and legends that Hollywood could devise. While not the latest version of this idea, it is the first and is still very valid.