A meticulous examination of the history and roots of economic inequality within the United States.

This volume refines and extends the economic history literature on economic inequality in the United States. Economic inequality manifests itself on various dimensions, including access to resources and economic security, as well as access to education and opportunities for migration, marriage, and other important life decisions. Measuring inequality and studying its variation over time and in response to economic shocks such as recessions and wars deepen our understanding of how the economy operates and can inform the design of public policies. The studies in this compendium present comprehensive evidence on income distribution during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawing on new data on wages and prices. They also consider disparities in economic well-being that are reflected in outcomes other than wage and salary income, such as homeownership and marriage. The volume also presents new evidence on the effects of income inequality on social outcomes. It concludes with an intellectual history of “human capital,” a core concept in the economic analysis of the underpinnings of labor market inequality.

Martha J. Bailey is professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a research associate of the NBER. Leah Platt Boustan is professor of economics at Princeton University as well as a research associate and codirector of the Development of the American Economy Program at the NBER. William J. Collins is the Terence E. Adderley Jr. Chair and Professor of Economics and professor of history (by courtesy) at Vanderbilt University, as well as an NBER research associate and codirector of the Development of the American Economy Program.

Introduction
Martha J. Bailey, Leah Platt Boustan, and William J. Collins

I. New Evidence on Wage Inequality
1. Wage Inequality in American Manufacturing, 1820–1940: New Evidence
Jeremy Atack, Robert A. Margo, and Paul W. Rhode
2. A Real Great Compression: Inflation and Inequality in the 1940s
Carola Frydman and Raven Molloy

II. Measuring Inequality in Well-Being
3. Income Gains and the Geography of the US Home Ownership Boom, 1940–1960
William J. Collins and Gregory T. Niemesh
4. Union Army Widows and the Historical Take-up of Social Benefits
Laura Salisbury
5. Marital Matching and Women’s Intergenerational Mobility in the Late 19th- and Early 20th- Century US
Martha J. Bailey and Peter Z. Lin

III. Consequences of Inequality
6. The Political Fallout of Machine Tool Automation in the Mid-20th-Century United States
Leah Platt Boustan, Jiwon Choi, and David Clingingsmith

IV. Coda
7. The Incubator of Human Capital: The NBER and the Rise of the Human Capital Paradigm
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz
Author Index
Subject Index