“The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality in America,” Book Talk with Truman State Prof. Dan Mandell

In an upcoming, Kinder Institute-adjacent event, Truman State Professor of History Daniel Mandell, our 2018-19 Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow, will sit down on Thursday, May 14, from 5:30-6:30pm Eastern (4:30-5:30 Central), for a conversation about this recent Johns Hopkins University Press book, The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality in America, 1600-1870, with Dr. Liz Covart, Digital Projects Editor for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society, you can register for the event using this link, and you can order Prof. Mandell’s book here, using HTWN for a 30% discount.

Also, for some pre-event homework, you can read Prof. Mandell’s recent April 7 piece in Time Magazine, “How the Civil War Changed the Way Americans Thought about Economic Equality,” here.

Abstract

Although Americans today are concerned about the ever-increasing levels of wealth and income inequality, many continue to believe that their country was founded on a person’s right to acquire and control property. But The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality argues that the US was originally deeply influenced by the belief that maintaining a “rough” equality of wealth was essential for a successful republican government. Author Daniel Mandell and Liz Covart will discuss Mandell’s new book which explores this tradition from its English roots through Reconstruction.