The current fiscal crisis faced by the American federal government represents the end of a fiscal regime that began with the financing of World War II. In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of scholars explores the history of American taxation and public finance since 1941 in an attempt to understand the political, social and economic forces that have shaped the current regime. Specifically, they examine the historical context of earlier tax regimes and national crises, explore the ways post-1941 governments used taxation to finance war, social security, and economic stability, and analyze the politics of post-1941 tax reform.

Part I. Introduction: Methodological and Historical: 1. Reflections on the history of taxation; 2. Tax regimes, national crises, and state-building in America; Taxation for War, Social Security, and Economic Stability: 3. Mass-based income taxation: creating a taxpaying culture, 1940-1952; 4. Social security and the financing of the American state; 5. The fiscal revolution in America; Part II. 1964 to 1994: Tax Reform and the Political Process: 6. Learning the ways and means: Wilbur Mills and a fiscal community, 1954-1964; 7. American business and the taxing state: alliances for growth in the postwar period; The Next Revenue Regime: 8. Financing the American state at the turn of the century.