The Cambridge Economic History of the United States / Volume 2: The Long Nineteenth Century / Volume 3: The Twentieth Century

2001/79 The Cambridge Economic History of the United States Edited by Stanley L. Engerman and Robert E. Gallman Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2000 Volume 2: The Long Nineteenth Century x + 1021 pp. ISBN 0 521 55307 L 60.00 ($99.95)

Volume 3: The Twentieth Century x + 1190 pp. ISBN 0 521 55308 3 L60 ($99.95)

Keywords Economics, History, USA

Unlike the last Cambridge volume I reviewed - one in the Ancient History series - these volumes are a credit to the printer's and bookbinder's arts. The pages of these volumes are sewn onto a flexible cloth backing, with a casing that also "gives", so that the page openings lie flat - fully photocopiable - an acid test of thick squat tomes such as these. Also, the print is blacker and the pages less cluttered with footnotes, so that in this case at least, the US printer and binder have done a better job than the Ancient History artisans at Cambridge itself. Sorry to rabbit on about the medium rather than the message, but when so much effort has been made by so many scholars and editors, it is sad when they are ill-served by...