The tariff uproar in 2025 has people all over using Smoot-Hawley as an incantation. But the "Smoot-Hawley as driver of the Great Depression" trope, as you wrote in this 1998 book review, is wrong (or at least has strong argument against it). It's a myth; it's a part of U.S. civic mythology.
For those who want to do some serious reading on the "Smoot-Hawley myth," I've reposted the relevant chapter from Alfred Eckes' landmark 1995 study of U.S. trade-policy history. (TLDR: Smoot-Hawley did NOT cause or deepen the Great Depression; the power and long-lastingness of this myth is a fascinating question I comment on in an introductory essay to the Eckes material):
A very well done article. Bravo!
The tariff uproar in 2025 has people all over using Smoot-Hawley as an incantation. But the "Smoot-Hawley as driver of the Great Depression" trope, as you wrote in this 1998 book review, is wrong (or at least has strong argument against it). It's a myth; it's a part of U.S. civic mythology.
For those who want to do some serious reading on the "Smoot-Hawley myth," I've reposted the relevant chapter from Alfred Eckes' landmark 1995 study of U.S. trade-policy history. (TLDR: Smoot-Hawley did NOT cause or deepen the Great Depression; the power and long-lastingness of this myth is a fascinating question I comment on in an introductory essay to the Eckes material):
https://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2025/04/04/alfred-eckes-study-on-the-smoot-hawley-tariff-of-1930-and-its-long-lasting-civic-mythology/