An erudite yet good-humored history of taxation. . . . Reading about taxes, it turns out, is a lot more fun than paying them. That's a low bar, but Rebellions, Rascals and Revenue clears it with ease. Check with your accountant: The book may be tax-deductible.---Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal
Societies throughout the ages have wrestled with the question of how to tax, who to tax, and how to make people pay. The stories that emerge are remarkable. In this highly enjoyable tour de force, Keen and Slemrod show how the travails of our ancestors can help us understand the problems we face today-and pass on a few eternal lessons. Prepare to read, learn, and enjoy!---Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank,
A spry survey of taxes over the course of history. . . . It won't ward off the April tax blues, but it does a fine job of explaining the hows and whys of taxation. * Kirkus Reviews *
It takes more than the entertainment of countless historical tax tales to produce a book on tax that actually pleases the reader. What makes this both so intriguing and worthwhile is how it draws out common threads of tax principles and practice that have underlain tax systems for thousands of years . . . There is no way to do justice to this book in a few paragraphs. * Vox EU *
Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod's book is wonderful and should be read by any student of tax. It is both entertaining and instructive. . . . Keen and Slemrod's marvelous book is not an attempt to directly effectuate tax policy or to rewrite tax history. Instead, it is a very wise excursion by two highly experienced public finance economists into the past to better understand the present by comparing it to what was different, and to improve the future by learning from both past wisdom and past follies. Herodotus and Thucydides would have been delighted to read it.---Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Tax Notes International
Tax history resembles the warehouse in the final scene of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark-an enormous, poorly lit jumble of unlabeled boxes, one of which may be hiding the answer to all the world's tax problems. This new book by two leading tax analysts turns up the lights, organizes many of the boxes in an enlightening way, and presents the results with a style and flair that make the subject not only understandable but-and this may come as a surprise to many-actually fun to read. The authors may not have found the answer, but even the most experienced reader can learn something from this lively and informative book.---Richard Bird, Finance & Development
A new book on the history of taxes adds levity to, and piques interest in, a topic often with the allure of a root canal.---Joel Schlesinger, Winnipeg Free Press
The main effect of this enjoyable gallop through state levies of the past is to expose the continuing oddities of how governments raise revenue today . . . the tales of historic folly and wisdom breathe life into dry principles of tax theory.---Liam Proud, Reuters
A fascinating and often funny book, without a single chart or quadratic equation to intimidate the nervous. . . . the book would serve as well as a textbook (though much more fun than most) for a budding economist as it would as an introduction for someone simply intrigued by one of life's two great certainties.---Frances Cairncross, Literary Review
Offers a historical precedent for almost any tax debate or controversy imaginable . . . . Keen and Slemrod have amassed the most remarkable collection of evidence to bolster and illuminate their case . . . . An invaluable primer to some of the underlying tensions behind contemporary political debate.---Chris Giles, Financial Times
