Max M. Edling shows how the fledgling American government raised money and incurred debt for its military needs, from the War of Independence through the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. America s military strength, Edling shows, was a function of its ability to raise money--and it was only when this ability flourished that America began to become an international power. By the time of the Civil War, Edling writes, less than a century after war broke out between Britain and her American colonies, the United States had traveled a long way toward its present position as the most powerful nation in the world. "

Max M. Edling is professor of early American history at King's College London.