(Col. John J. Abert, Chief, Topographical Corps of Engineers)

My dissertation, "Building the New American Nation: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860," is an exploration of the Army's integral role in the early American political economy.  Notwithstanding its small size, the Army proved to be a powerful instrument for promoting economic expansion.  The Army spurred development through two lines of activity: first, the traditional application of coercion and, second, by providing public goods that neither private actors nor state governments could supply.  Considering the Army leads me to reconceptualize the early American state as a bifurcated entity: a state of the periphery, dominated by the Army, and a state of the center, in which the Army still influenced economic development but other public institutions also performed key development functions.

I further demonstrate how bureaucratic autonomy developed much earlier than shown in previous studies, as the chiefs of War Department bureaus gained and maintained autonomy throughout much of this period.  My research thereby contributes to our understanding of American political development by demonstrating the emergence of a robust central state much earlier than shown in previous studies.