Books by Brian Phillips

Meet the Electric City! From cattle to coal mines, border ruffians to businessmen, and rockets to railroad schemes, the air around Butler, Missouri, has crackled with energy since the settlement's establishment in 1856. Ravaged by Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers and consumed in 1863 by the flames of General Order No. 11, the settlement rose from the ashes in the late 1860s and 1870s to become a hub of culture and commerce at the western edge of the "Show Me State." In 1881, the capital of Bates County went electric, becoming one of the first municipalities west of the Mississippi to generate its own power, outstripping Thomas Edison's Pearl Street Station in Manhattan by almost a year. A quiet little community with a loud and vibrant history, Butler is the quintessential example of the American small-town experience.

Fundamentally, history is the consequence of ideas. Every movement, revolution, war, and era is ultimately defined and motivated by a guiding ideology. In this book, we will examine the ideas that have shaped (or are shaping) government policies toward numerous industries. We will examine mature industries and newer industries. In examining mature industries, we can trace the long-term consequences of government policies. We can see the cause and the effect. We can see which policies resulted in innovation and progress, and which did not. In identifying the results of past policies, we can predict the future consequences of today's policy debates. Virtually everyone claims to support innovation and progress. But claiming such support and advocating policies that make innovation possible are not the same thing. We cannot discern the difference merely on the basis of claims and professed intentions. We must look at the principles-the fundamental ideas-being advocated.

A vibrant, surprising and thought-provoking collection of long-form non-fiction that takes us on a kaleidoscopic exploration of contemporary reality