Public and Private in American State Building

FAIN: FT-52431-04

Robert Lieberman
Columbia University (New York, NY 10027-7922)

This project seeks to explore historically how the American state has managed to exercise power despite its apparent weakness, particularly by mobilizing private activity on behalf of public power. Private activity not directly induced by government coercion has played a critical role in enabling the American state to carry out its public purposes, principally through the courts and bureaucratic processes. The project involves an archives-based historical examination of two important federal agencies that represent different aspects of the commingling of public and private in the American state: the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.