------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------  
Published by EH.NET (June 2006)  
  
Susan B. Carter, Scott Sigmund Gartner, Michael R. Haines, Alan L.   
Olmstead, Richard Sutch, and Gavin Wright, editors, _Historical   
Statistics of the United States, Volume Four: Economic Sectors _. New   
York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xiv + 1123 pp. $825 (for the   
five-volume set), ISBN: 0-521-85389-3.  
  
Reviewed for EH.NET by Lee J. Alston, Department of Economics,   
University of Colorado.  
  
  
This volume brought back memories from my graduate school days. As   
part of the field exam in economic history at the University of   
Washington overseen by Robert Higgs, Morris Morris, Douglass North,   
Robert Thomas and Kozo Yamamura, we had a set of required readings   
that more than took up a summer. Higgs required us to read several of   
the NBER volumes in _Studies in Income and Wealth_. He also strongly   
encouraged us to buy the _Historical Statistics of the United   
States_. Over the years I have consulted _Historical Statistics_   
countless times and this new edition is far more than a simple update   
of earlier Census editions. To give you a sense of its magnitude,   
this edition of Volume Four has 1,123 pages devoted to "Economic   
Sectors" compared to 272 pages in my older edition. This volume is an   
incredible public good and I congratulate the editors and   
contributors for the care with which they assembled the data.   
Moreover the introductions along with the essays for each chapter   
could be compiled into a "stand alone" book on the evolution of the   
American economy. As my mentors did to me, I will do to my students:   
I will have them read all of the essays in this volume.  
  
As Richard Sutch notes in his introduction to this volume, the Office   
of Management and Budget in 1945 "standardized the classification of   
industries and collection and reporting of data with the Standard   
Industrial Classification (SIC) system." Each establishment or   
economic unit is classified into eleven broad divisions and then   
subsequently sub-divided, e.g. mining is one of eleven broad codes   
and then subdivided into metal mining (and others) and, within metal   
mining, as detailed as "metal cans." Though the SIC system was   
replaced in 1997 to coordinate with other countries in North America,   
the data in this volume are organized along the lines of SIC codes   
still familiar to most of us. The editors have persuaded the experts   
in the profession to oversee each section and these experts in turn   
have brought on board others to write some sub-sections: Alan L.   
Olmstead -- Agriculture with help from Julian M. Alston, Bruce L.   
Gardner, Philip G. Pardy, Paul W. Rhode, and Daniel A. Sumner; Gavin   
Wright -- Natural Resource Industries; Kenneth A. Snowden --   
Construction, Housing and Mortgages; Jeremy Atack and Fred Bateman --   
Manufacturing; Daniel M.G. Raff -- Distribution; Louis P. Cain --   
Transportation; Alexander J. Field - Communications; and Thomas   
Weiss- Services with help from Susan B. Carter on Utilities. Anyone   
familiar with economic history will recognize the editors as   
"naturals" to write essays as well as to oversee the assembly of the   
data.  
  
The essays for each sector are not boring. As Alan Olmstead notes in   
Chapter Da. Agriculture: 4-7: "Underlying the data in this chapter is   
one of the epic stories in world history." The movement out of   
agriculture in such a short span of time was phenomenal. The data   
when viewed in this context take on more life. Like Olmstead, Jeremy   
Atack and Fred Bateman set the stage nicely for the subsequent data,   
on manufacturing (Chapter Dd. Manufacturing: 4-575): "The industrial   
transformation was swift: the modest manufacturing sector of 1850 had   
evolved into a complex multiplant, multiproduct producer of   
manufactured goods by 1900." After production, goods needed to be   
distributed. In 1930 Americans were scattered over three million   
square miles. Nearly half of the population was rural. As a result,   
Daniel Raff argues (Chapter De. Distribution: 4-705): "The scale of   
the problem of distribution is immediately apparent." The size of the   
U.S. is impressive and moving goods and services across space is an   
incredible task. The distribution of good and services goes hand in   
glove with transportation as Louis Cain notes (Chapter Df.   
Transportation: 4-761): "Where people work and where they live, where   
goods are produced and where they are sold, are all determined in   
part by the transportation infrastructure." With today's internet   
mindset we think that modern communications only arrived in the   
1990s, but Alexander Field (Chapter Dg. Communications: 4-977)   
reminds us that "There is a technological and historical context to   
these developments ... the technological and regulatory issues we   
continue to deal with in the first decade of the twenty-first century   
did not arrive full-blown with the breakup of the Bell System or the   
explosive growth of the Internet." The transition from a dominant   
agricultural country to a manufacturing powerhouse and now to an   
economy with a large service sector has raised some fears amongst   
social critics. Thomas Weiss aptly summarizes the concern of some   
critics (Chapter Dh. Services 4-1061): "the United States is becoming   
a nation of 'hamburger flippers,' who do not contribute much to the   
growth or vitality of the nation's economy." This volume may not make   
Oprah's reading list, but as essays introducing mountains of useful   
data they are far more interesting than I expected. The stage-setting   
of the essays, the clarity of definitions of the data, the sources   
for the data and the index are superb. This volume will find a   
welcoming home on the shelves of all U.S. economic historians.  
  
  
Lee J. Alston's current research interests include political   
governance in the historical U.S. and present-day Brazil; and the   
determinants of tenancy in the historical U.S. and Latin America   
today. His two most recent publications are: Lee J. Alston and   
Bernardo Mueller, "Pork for Policy: Executive and Legislative   
Exchange in Brazil," _Journal of Law Economics and Organization_ 22,   
Number 1 (Spring 2006) 87-114; and Lee J. Alston, Jeffery A. Jenkins   
and Tomas Nonnenmacher, "Who Should Govern Congress? Access to Power   
and the Salary Grab of 1873," _Journal of Economic History_   
(forthcoming, September 2006).  
  
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