Contraband: Smuggling and the Birth of the American Century [Hardcover]

How skirting the law once defined Americas relation to the world. [A] well-researched and well-written account of the underside of Americas growth as an economic power. [Cohens] research is meticulous, and he has an obvious passion for the subject&. Cohens themes will resonate for modern readers and, like the Michigan customs inspectors, he has a good deal of fun. Featuring a host of colorful characters, Widely researched and lucidly written, these episodes of rogues and their government-appointed opponents will enchant nonspecialists, while the larger issues of power and enterprise in America will attract academics. Andrew Wender Cohen has revolutionized our understanding of nineteenth-century America, putting smugglers and rogues, custom-house workers and naval gunboat officers, Jews and Gentiles, Confederates and Unionists at the heart of one of the liveliest and most consequential histories I have read in years. Cohen not only uncovers a heretofore hidden history, but anchors this invisible world in the central events of the American past. Andrew W. Cohen has written that rarest of books: a gripping narrative filled with colorful characters whose exploits will cause readers to rethink their understanding of the American past. Deeply researched, powerfully argued, and beautifully written, Andrew Cohen smuggles a rich and exotic cargo into this tale of American taxation and its discontents. Forget tea parties and the IRS; think rum, silk, opium, erotica, rakish con men, and corrupt revenuers. Highly readable and heroically researched, [A]n informative and lively account of smuggling, stocked with a boatload of rascals, rogues and revenuers&. Cohen has certainly succeeded in smuggling into his charming narrative fresh ways of thinking about the motivations behind and the implications of taxes and tax evasion for our economic and our political culture. US