W&L History Professor Pens Op-ed for Washington Post
Last week, we blogged about two alumni who’d just published op-eds in national newspapers. Today, we’re bragging on Molly Michelmore, associate professor of history at Washington and Lee, whose column, “Why the Income Tax is Worth Celebrating,” appeared in the Feb. 17 edition of the Washington Post. The occasion is the 100th birthday this month of the federal income tax.
In the op-ed, Molly, whose recent book is “Tax and Spend: The Welfare State, Tax Politics, and the Limits of American Liberalism,” explains the one-time popularity of the income tax and its development as an object of national importance, court decisions and wartime expansions. With this historical backdrop, she guides us through our present-day political debates about taxes.
Over the past two years, Molly also has published op-eds about tax politics in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Christian Science Monitor. And she and her book received a glowing reference in the New Yorker of Nov. 26, 2012; you can read our blog about that here.
Molly, who arrived at W&L in 2006, teaches U.S. history and 20th-century social, political and cultural history.
If you know any W&L faculty who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.
