A resource for re-establishing the American System of Political Economy
The Definitive Book for the America 250 Celebration (Click to Order)
Nancy Bradeen Spannaus, author and historian, 1943-2026
Nancy Bradeen Spannaus of Lovettsville, VA, author and public historian, died on January 16, 2026 at Inova Loudoun Hospital. Nancy had been fighting cancer over a span of eleven years, and was battling a rare and particularly virulent form of the disease for the past two years.
Nancy had been studying U.S. history, with an emphasis on the country’s economic development in general, and Alexander Hamilton in particular, since the 1970s, and in 1977 she co-authored a book of writings on the Political Economy of the American Revolution. In 2017, upon retirement from a career in journalism, she established the blog https://americansystemnow.com, which contains more than 600 articles on the history and principles of the American System of Economics. Read more…
William McKinley (1843-1901) was the last American President—until the recent comments by President Trump—to acclaim the American System, and he acted to put it into effect. For McKinley, the core of the system was the protective tariff, by which he expected the Federal government to ensure the health of industry, labor, agriculture, and commerce. Until he was bamboozled into launching the Spanish-American War, McKinley—as Congressman and President—also pursued a foreign policy based on American System economics, including promoting major infrastructure and nation-building projects abroad.
As Lincoln’s greenback system had been cancelled in the 1870s with Species Resumption, McKinley sought to use the gold standard in such a way as to defend of the American economy against the British imperial system. He maintained the government-supervised national banking system, so as to provide reasonable credit to farmers and entrepreneurs. He was passionate about the defense of the working people, including Afro-Americans.
