A vast array of internal taxes, including a graduated income tax, were imposed through a new revenue bureaucracy. By the end of the war, average tariff duties had risen to 47 percent, decisively moving the economy from free trade to protectionism. What did that legislation do? Prior to the war, the only sources of federal revenue were a low tariff and sale of public lands. But Lowenstein credits Lincoln with working behind the scenes to promote legislation that emerged during his presidency. Lincoln had been a member of the Whig Party, which traditionally looked askance at presidential intrusion into Congress' realm. This permits him to highlight Abraham Lincoln's role more than most surveys do. And certainly many nonhistorians who have read widely about the Civil War are aware of its impact on the central government's powers.Īs Lowenstein unveils the government interventions that brought about what he calls a 'staggering transformation,' he delves into their political origins as deeply as their economic features. Among the myriad other histories that have likewise done so are Richard White's The Republic for Which It Stands (2017), Steven Hahn's A Nation Without Borders (2016), and my own Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men (1996). McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom (1988). Lowenstein's endnotes even cite some works making the same point, including Richard Franklin Bensel's Yankee Leviathan (1990) and James M. But he goes too far when he claims that this Republican 'revolution' has been 'largely overlooked.' Really? Certainly not among historians. Lowenstein is an engaging, readable author, and he has consulted a wide range of primary sources and secondary literature. He aims to demonstrate how the Republicans 'vastly enlarged the government.' He not only describes the war's expansion of state power across many dimensions he celebrates this outcome as 'an agenda for industry and growth, and to foster opportunity, especially for those at the bottom.'

The book's subtitle- Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War-is misleadingly incomplete, because Lowenstein covers far more than Union finance. With Ways and Means, Roger Lowenstein, the author of several popular books on finance, has tackled the Civil War. Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War, by Roger Lowenstein, Penguin Press, 448 pages, $30

Ways and Means by Roger Lowenstein