Smuggler nation : how illicit trade made America / Peter Andreas.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 357-425) and index.

The golden age of illicit trade -- The smuggling road to revolution -- The smuggling war of independence -- Contraband and embargo busting in the new nation -- Traitorous traders and patriotic pirates -- The illicit industrial revolution -- Bootleggers and fur traders in Indian country -- Illicit slavers and the perpetuation of the slave trade -- Blood cotton and blockade-runners -- Tariff evaders and enforcers -- Sex, smugglers, and purity crusaders -- Coming to America through the back door -- Rumrunners and prohibitionists -- America's century-long drug war -- Border wars and the underside of economic integration -- America and illicit globalization in the twenty-first century.

America is a smuggler nation. Our long history of illicit imports has ranged from West Indies molasses and Dutch gunpowder in the 18th century, to British industrial technologies and African slaves in the 19th century, to French condoms and Canadian booze in the early 20th century, to Mexican workers and Colombian cocaine in the modern era.

Far from being a new and unprecedented danger to America, the illicit underside of globalization is actually an old American tradition. As Andreas shows, it goes back not just years but centuries. And its impact has been decidedly double-edged, not only subverting but also empowering America.

Print version record.

English.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide