Taxes
Vanessa Williamson, Justene Hill Edwards
How have debates over taxation shaped American history and its democracy? The Brookings Institution's Vanessa Williamson explores in her book, The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History, how tax politics and fights over taxes are not simply about money, but about broader questions central to democracy and its ideals. Justene Hill Edwards, associate professor of history at UVA and author of the award-winning Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank (2024), is moderating the conversation.
A limited number of lunches will be available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 11:30 AM. Williamson's book will be available for purchase. Parking is not available at Bond House. If you plan to drive, there is paid parking within walking distance at the Oakhurst Inn and Central Grounds Garage. For additional handicap accessible parking spots, consult the UVA accessibility map.
The Nau Lab's “Touchstones of Democracy” series explores key events, places, thinkers, and texts that inform the history and principles of democracy. Leading up to the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence in July 2026, this event series is showcasing recent books that expand and deepen our understanding of the era of the American Revolution—and illuminate the connections of that period to the present.
The fall 2025 conversations are produced at the University of Virginia by the Karsh Institute of Democracy and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
Speakers
Vanessa Williamson
Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
Senior Fellow, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
Vanessa Williamson
Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
Senior Fellow, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
Vanessa Williamson is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings, and a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. She studies taxation and democracy in America.
Her forthcoming book, “The Price of Democracy,” reveals the revolutionary power of taxation in American history (Basic Books, September 2025). She is also the author of “Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes,” and, with Harvard professor Theda Skocpol, “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.”
She has written on school segregation, tax opinion, and tax politics in the Washington Post; about the Tea Party, anti-union legislation and voter registration at income tax filing in the New York Times; about taxpayer citizenship in the Atlantic; about philanthropy and austerity and white supremacy in Dissent; and about democracy and organizing for Teen Vogue. She has discussed her research on NPR’s “Marketplace”, C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”, CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” She received her Ph.D. in social policy from Harvard University.
Justene Hill Edwards
Associate Professor of History, UVA
Justene Hill Edwards
Associate Professor of History, UVA
Justene Hill Edwards is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia. She is a specialist in African American history and her research examines Black economic life in America. She is the author of Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank (2024, W.W. Norton) and Unfree Markets: The Slaves’ Economy and the Rise of Capitalism in South Carolina (2021, Columbia University Press). She has won numerous fellowships and awards, most recently an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Mellon New Directions Fellowship, and the Harold F. Williamson Prize from the Business History Conference. In 2024, she was awarded an inaugural Dean’s Research Fellowship by the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. Hill Edwards is on the editorial boards of The Journal of the Civil War Era, Enterprise & Society, and the University of Virginia Press. She also serves as a trustee of the Midland School, the Shockoe Institute, and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.