Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975

by Julian E. Zelizer

Overview

Taxing America provides the first historical study of Wilbur Daigh Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1958 to 1974. The work of Mills, an extremely influential politician between 1945 and 1975, offers considerable insights into the evolution of income taxation, Social Security and Medicare—three policies at the center of today's political debates. Unlike the existing historical scholarship, Zelizer's book focuses on the role of Congress, rather than the executive branch, in the evolution of the welfare state during this seminal period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521621663
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/13/1999
Pages:	402
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; Part I. Learning the Ways and Means: 2. An Arkansas traveler comes to Washington; 3. 'Where is the money coming from?'; 4. 'Taxation of whom and for what?'; 5. The legislative mills, 1958–61; 6. The postwar fiscal discourse; Part II. The Politics of Policy: 7. The road to tax reduction; 8. Bringing Medicare into the State; 9. The war on inflation; 10. Spending through taxes; 11. Expanding social security: inflation and social insurance, 1969–70; Part III. Conclusion: 12. Looking backward and forward.

Editorial Reviews

"[Zelizer's] book is a masterly account of politics and policy that combines historical research, institutional and cultural analysis of policy communities, and congressional scholarship." Perspectives on Political Science

"its author is opinionated without being polemical, deftly exposing the inadequacy of the "end of reform" approach to postwar American history and offering an alternative model that is highly sophisticated and thoroughly convincing... Zelizer combines the disciplines of history and political science in ways that suggest a bright future for the emerging subdiscipline of policy history." American Historical Review.

From the Publisher