Where Will ‘America First’ Lead Us? The Answer From History: Nowhere Good

Aggressive economic nationalism is in vogue in Washington. Calls to “Make America Great Again” emanate from the White House and are emblazoned on the red caps that are ubiquitous in many parts of the country. While the exact contours of this program remain amorphous, it includes sharply increased tariffs to advantage domestic industries; fantastical neocolonial schemes involving Greenland, Panama and Canada; proposals for the government to take an ownership stake in private companies; and Washington-led efforts to secure access to raw materials. Making America great again seems to require massive state intervention—not just a deliberate politicization of markets, but even the president’s personal advice on how to manage particular companies. (“I have been speaking to @CocaCola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States,” Donald Trump said in an Instagram post in July.)

As unsettling as many observers find these policies, they are not entirely novel. Take protectionism: Tariffs and other sorts of import barriers have been constant features across capitalism’s history. When Britain industrialized in the 18th century, it passed numerous laws to exclude cheaper, superior Indian textiles from its markets. Likewise, when the US embarked on intensive industrialization in the 19th century, it did so behind high tariff walls. And through the successive waves of decolonization from the 1940s into the 1960s, newly independent nations in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia embraced protectionism to replace imports with domestic production.