As our nation confronts its most serious challenge to the economy since the Great Depression, citizens can benefit from examining history and ideas surrounding previous economic issues and crises. We hope that these lessons will prove valuable to students and teachers alike.

Taxes & Revenue  |  Business Regulation  |  Labor & Welfare  |  Supreme Court Decisions  |  Economic Theory

Taxes & Revenue 

Shays’ Rebellion: A Massachusetts Farmer’s Account (4,1: 87)
The Whiskey Rebellion and the New American Republic (23:3,07)
The Income Tax Amendment (11:3:95)
The Balanced Budget Amendment (11,3:95)

Business Regulation

Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Monopoly (16,2:00)
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (24:1:08)   
Progressives and the Era of Trustbusting (23:1:07)
Media Mergers and the Public Interest (23:1:07)
The Development of Antitrust Enforcement (23:1:07) 
United States v. Microsoft (16,2:00)

Labor & Welfare

The Dustbowl Migrations (21,3:05)
Sit-Down Strike! (1,4:85)
How Welfare Began in the United States (14,3:98)
Outsourcing Jobs to Other Countries (21,3:05)
Welfare to Work: The States Take Charge (14,3:98)

Supreme Court Decisions

John Marshall and the Bank Case (McCulloch v. Maryland) (7,2:90)   
Gibbons v. Odgen (From Landmarks)

Economic Theory

Social Darwinism and American Laissez-Faire Capitalism (19,2:03)
Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations (23:1:07) 
Karl Marx: A Failed Vision of History (19,2:03)