Against the Profit Motive

"Economists beware! In this path-breaking book, Nicholas Parrillo revolutionizes our understanding of compensation systems. With gripping historical evidence, he demonstrates the profoundly political and cultural construction of the US’s salary system." - Viviana A. Zelizer, author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy (Princeton University Press, 2010)

~Viviana Zelizer

"Against the Profit Motive is more than a prodigiously researched account of public employee compensation in the United States.  It offers a foundational perspective on one of the most challenging dilemmas Americans faced over three centuries:  empowering government officials to act independently on behalf of the public good while ensuring the legitimacy of those actions, even when they met with opposition." - Brian Balogh, author of A Government Out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America (Cambridge University Press)

~Brian Balogh

"Nicholas Parrillo's Against the Profit Motive represents the best in a new generation of source-based, reality-based legal history.  Forgoing yet another discussion of the usual cases and well-worn theory and historiography, Parrillo takes us somewhere new. Through exemplary and tireless research in previously untapped primary sources, Parrillo takes us deep into the inner workings of early American governance and meticulously reconstructs a previously unknown historical world of public-private bounties, fees, rewards, prizes, gifts, profits, and moieties that made that all-important machinery seem to "go of itself."  Together with his Yale colleague Jerry Mashaw, Parrillo is doing nothing less than rewriting the history of the early American state."--William Novak, University of Michigan Law School

~William Novak

Winner of the 2014 Law and Society Association James Willard Hurst Book Prize.

~James Willard Hurst Book Prize, Law and Society Association

“A fascinating and deeply researched book [that] explores what must be among the least examined aspects of American history — the way compensation for public officials has changed over time. Today’s mega-state would never have been possible without the changes in compensation [Parrillo] documents.”—George Leef, Forbes

~George Leef, Forbes

“This is a remarkable book. Based on prodigious research and artfully reported, Against the Profit Motive recounts an untold story with important implications for political and theoretical issues . . . . An impressive achievement that will make a lasting contribution to our understanding of the development of the modern state.”—Logan Everett Sawyer III, Journal of Economic History ~Logan Everett Sawyer III, Journal of Economic History

“A fascinating new study of the salary revolution in American government . . . . Parrillo makes a persuasive argument about the importance of an often little-noticed aspect of American government . . . . Highly recommended.”—Choice

~Choice

“Parrillo expertly explains how and why state and federal governments moved from paying their employees and contractors fees to paying them salaries . . . . Rewarding reading.”—Michael Ariens, Federal Lawyer

~Michael Ariens, The Federal Lawyer

Winner of the 2014 Annual Scholarship Award from the American Bar Association's Section on Administrative Law

~Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law, American Bar Association

“The theories and history Parrillo documents form the perfect background for tackling the radical changes taking place in policing and teaching in recent decades . . . . [His] book is a deep and engrossing dive into the history of the provisioning of government services during the first 160 years of our country. . . . [A] major scholarly achievement.”—Boston Review

~The Boston Review

“This is an important book that makes an original contribution to our understanding of the formation and power of the American state. It belongs on the bookshelf of every scholar of American political development and public administration.”—Peri E. Arnold, Review of Politics

~Peri E. Arnold, The Review of Politics

“[P]owerful and provocative . . . [This book] is a work of history, but this history has immense contemporary relevance . . . Parrillo transports us to the largely forgotten world of nineteenth-century American government as bazaar. This was a world in which one could readily mistake citizens for consumers – and bureaucrats for businessmen . . . [A] sweeping and vivid account.”—Harvard Law Review

~Harvard Law Review