Phillip Magness

Program Director

• Email: pmagness@ihs.gmu.edu

Dr. Phil Magness is a policy historian and Academic Program Director at the Institute for Humane Studies. Echoing the warnings Bastiat and Tocqueville, his research area encompasses the two great political problems of the early United States: slavery and taxation. Magness is the co-author of the critically acclaimed book Colonization after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement (University of Missouri Press), offering a reexamination of the federal government's anti-slavery and freedmen's policies during the American Civil War. He has also written extensively on the history of the federal income tax, the late 19^th century free trade movement, and the history of abolitionism. His historical writings have appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic, the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, and Constitutional Political Economy, as well as Britannica.com and the History News Network.

Originally from Houston, Texas, Magness completed his undergraduate studies in Political Science and Economics at the University of St. Thomas and obtained his MPP and PhD at George Mason University. He previously worked on trade policy at the House Ways and Means Committee and as a consultant on taxation and economic forecasting. Magness has also taught Public Administration at American University in Washington, D.C., and is currently an adjunct professor at GMU’s School of Public Policy.