Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World, by Marc-William Palen, Princeton University Press, 328 pages, $35
In 1845 the editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant, traveled to England. In America, Bryant's paper was famous for its radical support of free trade, free banking, international peace, and the abolition of slavery. In Europe, he was America's most famous and accomplished poet—and a strong ally to Richard Cobden in the Anti–Corn Law League's war to bring down the price of bread by rolling back tariffs.
