A History of American State and Local Economic Development presents the history of American local and state economic development from 1790 to 2000. This multi-variable, multi-disciplinary history employs a bottom-up policy-making systems approach through three eras of American state and local economic development. The history offers insight into why the practice and profession evolved as it has and comments on its present day complexity. It stresses mainstream economic and community development as an output of jurisdictional policy systems driven by political culture and three key forces of change-industry/sector profit cycle, population mobility and three competitive urban hierarchies-which continue to impact policy-making. With several chapters on each major US region, this book observes two macro political cultures, Privatism and Progressivism, that have persisted since the Early Republic and have inspired two often conflicting approaches to confront urban growth and decline. This history of American state and local economic development will be of main interest to the academic community and economic development professionals, particularly those in political science, public policy, history, economics, planning, urban sociology and geography. Research, policy institutes and NGOs will also find value in the comprehensive history.