Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America

How Illicit Trade Made America

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Criminology, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America by Peter Andreas, Oxford University Press, USA
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Peter Andreas ISBN: 9780199301614
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Publication: January 16, 2013
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Peter Andreas
ISBN: 9780199301614
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication: January 16, 2013
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

America is a smuggler nation. Our long history of illicit imports has ranged from West Indies molasses and Dutch gunpowder in the 18th century, to British industrial technologies and African slaves in the 19th century, to French condoms and Canadian booze in the early 20th century, to Mexican workers and Colombian cocaine in the modern era. Contraband capitalism, it turns out, has been an integral part of American capitalism. Providing a sweeping narrative history from colonial times to the present, Smuggler Nation is the first book to retell the story of America--and of its engagement with its neighbors and the rest of the world--as a series of highly contentious battles over clandestine commerce. As Peter Andreas demonstrates in this provocative and fascinating account, smuggling has played a pivotal and too often overlooked role in America's birth, westward expansion, and economic development, while anti-smuggling campaigns have dramatically enhanced the federal government's policing powers. The great irony, Andreas tells us, is that a country that was born and grew up through smuggling is today the world's leading anti-smuggling crusader. In tracing America's long and often tortuous relationship with the murky underworld of smuggling, Andreas provides a much-needed antidote to today's hyperbolic depictions of out-of-control borders and growing global crime threats. Urgent calls by politicians and pundits to regain control of the nation's borders suffer from a severe case of historical amnesia, nostalgically implying that they were ever actually under control. This is pure mythology, says Andreas. For better and for worse, America's borders have always been highly porous. Far from being a new and unprecedented danger to America, the illicit underside of globalization is actually an old American tradition. As Andreas shows, it goes back not just decades but centuries. And its impact has been decidedly double-edged, not only subverting U.S. laws but also helping to fuel America's evolution from a remote British colony to the world's pre-eminent superpower.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

America is a smuggler nation. Our long history of illicit imports has ranged from West Indies molasses and Dutch gunpowder in the 18th century, to British industrial technologies and African slaves in the 19th century, to French condoms and Canadian booze in the early 20th century, to Mexican workers and Colombian cocaine in the modern era. Contraband capitalism, it turns out, has been an integral part of American capitalism. Providing a sweeping narrative history from colonial times to the present, Smuggler Nation is the first book to retell the story of America--and of its engagement with its neighbors and the rest of the world--as a series of highly contentious battles over clandestine commerce. As Peter Andreas demonstrates in this provocative and fascinating account, smuggling has played a pivotal and too often overlooked role in America's birth, westward expansion, and economic development, while anti-smuggling campaigns have dramatically enhanced the federal government's policing powers. The great irony, Andreas tells us, is that a country that was born and grew up through smuggling is today the world's leading anti-smuggling crusader. In tracing America's long and often tortuous relationship with the murky underworld of smuggling, Andreas provides a much-needed antidote to today's hyperbolic depictions of out-of-control borders and growing global crime threats. Urgent calls by politicians and pundits to regain control of the nation's borders suffer from a severe case of historical amnesia, nostalgically implying that they were ever actually under control. This is pure mythology, says Andreas. For better and for worse, America's borders have always been highly porous. Far from being a new and unprecedented danger to America, the illicit underside of globalization is actually an old American tradition. As Andreas shows, it goes back not just decades but centuries. And its impact has been decidedly double-edged, not only subverting U.S. laws but also helping to fuel America's evolution from a remote British colony to the world's pre-eminent superpower.

More books from Oxford University Press, USA

Cover of the book Keeping Faith With The Constitution by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Planet Taco:A Global History of Mexican Food by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Among the Creationists:Dispatches from the Anti-Evolutionist Front Line by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Arnold J. Toynbee:A Life by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book The Music Instinct:How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Genius Unmasked by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Escaping Salem:The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book The Strange Career of Jim Crow by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Sudan, South Sudan, and Darfur:What Everyone Needs to Know by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book The Complete Sophocles : Volume I: The Theban Plays by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Growing in Love and Wisdom:Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Psychology for Musicians : Understanding and Acquiring the Skills by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book Everyday Stalinism:Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s by Peter Andreas
Cover of the book The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1: Inferno by Peter Andreas
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy