Joining us this month as Guest Blogger is Ajay K. Mehrotra, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Research, and Louis F. Niezer Faculty Fellow and the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and an Adjunct Associate Professor in Indiana-Bloomington’s History Department. A scholar of taxation and of American legal history, Professor Mehrtotra has, with ASLH President Michael Grossberg, co-directed the Indiana University Center for Law, Society & Culture. He has also been a member of a national, interdisciplinary network of scholars that created the field of "new fiscal sociology."I invited Professor Mehrotra to discuss his recently published book, Making the Modern American Fiscal State: Law, Politics and the Rise of Progressive Taxation, 1877-1929 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), as well as anything else that interests him. Over at Jotwell, Christopher Schmidt called Making the Modern American Fiscal State “a truly impressive work of legal historical scholarship—thoroughly researched, well written, and powerfully argued. Mehrotra also offers a masterful demonstration of scholarly synthesis, artfully weaving together an intricate tapestry of economics, politics, law, and social history.” I teach its chapter on Treasury Department lawyers during World War II, originally published in Law and History Review, every year in my American Legal History course. Welcome, Ajay!
