1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910824070403321

Autore

Murtazashvili Ilia <1975->

Titolo

The political economy of the American frontier / / Ilia Murtazashvili, University of Pittsburgh [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-107-42405-4

1-139-89081-6

1-107-42184-5

1-107-41917-4

1-107-41646-9

1-107-42041-5

1-139-09409-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xv, 282 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Political economy of institutions and decisions

Classificazione

POL040000

Disciplina

333.3/17809034

Soggetti

Land tenure - West (U.S.) - History - 19th century

Land settlement - West (U.S.) - History - 19th century

Land claim associations - History - 19th century

Agriculture - Economic aspects - West (U.S.) - History - 19th century

Mines and mineral resources - Economic aspects - West (U.S.) - History - 19th century

Logging - Economic aspects - West (U.S.) - History - 19th century

Ranching - Economic aspects - West (U.S.) - History - 19th century

Frontier and pioneer life - West (U.S.)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; Part I. The Origins of Property Institutions: 2. A theory of claim clubs; 3. From spontaneous order to conscious choice: claim clubs on the frontier; 4. Bandits within the state: an assessment of claim clubs as property institutions; Part II. Change in Property Institutions: 5. Claim clubs, distributive conflict, and the origins of squatters' rights; 6. The political economy of homesteads; 7. The open floodgate in the far West; 8. The influence of claim clubs in the States; 9. Conclusion.



Sommario/riassunto

This book offers an analytical explanation for the origins of and change in property institutions on the American frontier during the nineteenth century. Its scope is interdisciplinary, integrating insights from political science, economics, law and history. This book shows how claim clubs - informal governments established by squatters in each of the major frontier sectors of agriculture, mining, logging and ranching - substituted for the state as a source of private property institutions and how they changed the course of who received a legal title, and for what price, throughout the nineteenth century. Unlike existing analytical studies of the frontier that emphasize one or two sectors, this book considers all major sectors, as well as the relationship between informal and formal property institutions, while also proposing a novel theory of emergence and change in property institutions that provides a framework to interpret the complicated history of land laws in the United States.