George Mason University

Academic Program Director, Institute for Humane Studies

Other Affiliations: American University, Department of Public Administration and Policy
George Mason University, School of Public Policy

Thesis Title: From tariffs to the income tax: Trade protection and revenue in the United States tax system.

About

Dr. Phil Magness is a political economist and policy historian based at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He has taught bureaucracy and administration in American Government, as well as international commerce and trade policy. His research focuses on a diverse array of public policy topics, though he specializes in American political and economic history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

He is the co-author of "Colonization after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement" (University of Missouri Press, 2010) with Sebastian N. Page, and the author of multiple articles on the history of administration, U.S. trade policy, and slavery.

Magness' historical interests may be summarized as a continuation of these issues as the two major problems of 19th century America identified by Bastiat:

"But even in the United States, there are two issues — and only two — that have always endangered the public peace. What are these two issues? They are slavery and tariffs. These are the only two issues where, contrary to the general spirit of the republic of the United States, law has assumed the character of a plunderer. Slavery is a violation, by law, of liberty. The protective tariff is a violation, by law, of property." (Bastiat, La Loi, 1850)

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