Speculation Nation

  In Speculation Nation (University of Pennsylvania Press) Blaakman provides a detailed account of the impact of land speculation, which ran rampant in the U.S. during its first quarter-century. Patriot leaders relied on the seizure and public sale of Native American territories to fund the War of Independence and hoped to boost land ownership for white farmers. Economic challenges plagued those plans, ultimately leading to a land business crash in the late 1790s. In the end, Blaakman reveals how these practices throughout that era made speculative capitalism a foundation of the American republic.