While, as Benjamin Franklin quipped, it may be that nothing is certain but death and taxes, only the former can be considered the great equalizer. Death comes for us all, regardless of our social or economic status. Taxes, on the other hand, have always been far more complicated.

Vanessa S. Williamson's new book, The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History, takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of taxation from colonization to the present day. In doing so, she makes a clear and, I'd argue, unassailable case that taxation, far from being a dry matter of fiscal policy, lies at the very heart of democracy itself.

A senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution,

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