John C. Weaver - Böcker

Many developed countries restructured relations between state and economy from the late 1970s into the 1990s. Among them, New Zealand went far, fast, and left a clear trail, making it possible to study economic restructuring as it occurred, with all the debates, uncertainty, surprises, mistakes, and accomplishments this entailed. Adam Smith's Islands reveals the inside life of a government determined to revolutionize its nation's politics and economy.While the 1980s economic restructuring of members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and former Warsaw Pact countries can seem like a foregone conclusion from the vantage point of the twenty-first century, John Weaver examines how local and global institutions had to come together to implement social adjustments in New Zealand. Mounting evidence that the state had not functioned as an effective manager split the business community and primary producers between defenders of subsidization and free-market insurgents. Reforms undertaken by the governing Labour Party included abandoning currency controls, privatizing state-run businesses, ending a multitude of open and disguised subsidies, tightening fiscal responsibility, and reforming taxation. Adam Smith's Islands focuses on the verifiable: direct primary sources from dozens of state collections and deposits of personal papers. The archival cornucopia informing this history supports a narrative that has little in common with intellectual histories of neoliberalism. To understand how the relationship between the economy and the state changed, we need to grasp how and why core institutions, practices, and cultural beliefs shed some of their once potent legitimacy.Through the lens of New Zealand, Adam Smith's Islands examines larger questions about policy dilemmas, the global flow of capital, and the sustainability of social adjustments in economic restructuring. In so doing, it casts new light on the formation and history of what is casually labelled today as the neoliberal state.

Doucet and Weaver begin this empirical, analytical, and narrative study with an analysis of the evolution of land development as an enterprise and continue with an examination of house design and construction practices, the development of the apartment building, and an account of class and age as they relate to housing tenure. They also relate developments in Hamilton to the current state of urban historiography, using their case study to resolve discrepancies and contradictions in the literature. Among the major themes the authors deal with is a controversial exploration of what they see as a central North American urge: the desire to own a home. Other themes include the social allocation of urban space, the quality and affordability of housing, the increased interest of large corporations in the land development and financial service industries, and a comparative analysis of housing in Canada and the United States. The authors have drawn on civic and business records dating from the early nineteenth century to the latest planning data. Combining this information with their comprehensive analysis, Doucet and Weaver show that current housing problems and potential solutions are better understood when seen as part of a historical process. They provide a critical assessment of the ways in which contemporary society produces shelter and question the use of technical innovations alone to resolve housing crises.

Using Hamilton, Ontario, as his model, Weaver makes extensive use of newspaper accounts and police, court, and jail records in a revealing exploration of individual crime cases and overall trends in crime. Tracing the origin and evolution of courts, juries, police, and punishments, Weaver takes into account various social and cultural issues. For example, he shows how increasing centralization and professionalization of the criminal justice system and police have deprived communities of input, and how the legal system continues to be male dominated and biased against newcomers, strangers, and marginalized social groups. Often critical of the "state," Weaver paints a sympathetic view of police constables, who play an ambiguous role in the community while being saddled with an expanding array of onerous duties. Crimes, Constables, and Courts is history at its best - informative, entertaining, and accessible with a lively human element woven throughout. "Truly outstanding." Rod C. Macleod, Department of History, University of Alberta.

A critique of the greatest reallocation of resources in the history of the world and its impact on indigenous peoples, property rights, and the very foundations of modernity.