This event is free and open to the public. Part of the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy's spring colloquia series.

Between the American Revolution and the War of 1812 there was a fundamental transformation in American manufacturing capacity. During the War of Independence the Continental Congress and state governments were forced to turn to the international market for arms and munitions as domestic suppliers could not hope to meet the army's material demands. The situation some thirty years later was vastly different as domestic suppliers such as DuPont, Eli Whitney, and the Springfield Armory were able to keep the armed forces well-supplised with the instruments of battle. This talk will explore why this broad economic change occured, the domestic politics and policies behind it, and its significance for understanding the nature of governance in the early American republic.

Andrew J.B. Fagal is an assistant editor for the Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. from Binghamton University, the State University of New York, in 2013 and has had his work on the War of 1812 published in The New England Quarterly and New York History. He is currently completing his book manuscript on the political economy of war in the early republic.