Book details history of trade politics in US

The Wealth of a Nation, written by C. Donald Johnson, director emeritus of the UGA School of Law’s Dean Rusk International Law Center, will be published next month by Oxford University Press.

In the book, Johnson charts the rise and fall of the U.S. protectionist system from the time of Alexander Hamilton to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930. He then examines the liberal rules-based economic order that has dominated the globe since World War II.

In advance of the book’s release, Johnson will discuss the history of trade politics in a lecture on April 17 at 4 p.m. in the large event space of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.

A former ambassador in the Office of U.S. Trade Representative from 1998 until 2000, Johnson also specialized in international trade law as a partner at Patton Boggs, LLP in Washington, D.C. Johnson also represented Georgia’s 10th district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993-1995.