Volume II surveys the economic history of the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean during the nineteenth century, a period of massive international and intercontinental movements of labor, capital, and commodities. The United States and Canada began the period as small but vigorous societies; the United States ended the period as the world's premier economic power. Five main themes frame the economic changes described in the volume: the migration of labor and capital from Europe, Asia, and Africa to the Americas; westward expansion; slavery and its aftermath; the process of industrialization; and the social consequences of economic growth that led to fundamental changes in the role of government. Other topics include: inequality, population, labor, agriculture, entrepreneurship, transportation, banking and finance, business law, and international trade.

"Undergraduate and graduate students can find in them precise analyses and welcome syntheses." The Journal of American History Dec 2001