The Department of Economics welcomes Greg Niemesh from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on Friday, February 24 at 4:10 p.m. for the Richard Grandin Shepherd Lecture in Economics. Join us in Chalmers Library room 320 for a talk about "American Economic Anxiety and the Know-Nothing Party."
We study the contribution of economic conditions to the success of the first avowedly nativist political party in the United States. The Know-Nothing Party gained control of a number of state governments in the 1854-1856 elections running on a staunchly anti-Catholic and anti-Irish platform. Voters in towns with more exposure to the Irish labor market crowd out and deskilling in manufacturing were more likely to vote for Know-Nothing candidates in state elections.