As America marks its 250th anniversary, it also celebrates the foundations of its prosperity: a tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship, free-market capitalism, and institutions that have helped transform it into a global superpower.
Over two-and-a-half centuries, the country has achieved remarkable economic growth, evolving from a largely agrarian society into the world’s leading economy.
Its path, however, has not been easy. America’s political and economic systems faced severe tests from the Civil War to the Great Depression. Yet time and again, the country has defied predictions of decline and recovered strongly from each crisis.
Arthur Herman, historian and author of “Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump,” argues that the defining characteristic of the American economy has been a culture of risk-taking that stretches back to the nation’s earliest settlements….