Good evening everyone, I have been a long time lurker here in the forum and the Mises site, along with LRC. Currently I am in the University of West Georgia, working on a Chemical Engineering degree, and I was wondering if I could get some leads on sources for a research project. My paper will probably be on the economics/politics of the Gilded Age, so I was wondering if any of you knew of good books to use for economic statistics, outside of government produced ones. Thanks in advance for replies, I won’t be back for about a day, so I won’t be able to respond right away,
Historian Burton W. Folsom, Jr.'s The Myth of the Robber Barons: describes the role of key entrepreneurs in the economic growth of the United States from 1850 to 1910. The entrepreneurs studied are Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, James J. Hill, Andrew Mellon, Charles Schwab, and the Scranton family. Most historians argue that these men, and others like them, were Robber Barons. The story, however, is more complicated. The author, Burton Folsom, divides the entrepreneurs into two groups market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. The market entrepreneurs, such as Hill, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller, succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price. The political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and in railroads the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies, or in some way use government to stop competitors. The market entrepreneurs helped lead to the rise of the U. S. as a major economic power. By 1910, the U. S. dominated the world in oil, steel, and railroads led by Rockefeller, Schwab (and Carnegie), and Hill. The political entrepreneurs, by contrast, were a drain on the taxpayers and a thorn in the side of the market entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the political entrepreneurs often failed without help from government they could not produce competitive products. The author describes this clash of the market entrepreneurs and the political entrepreneurs. In the Mellon chapter, the author describes how Andrew Mellon an entrepreneur in oil and aluminum became Secretary of Treasury under Coolidge. In office, Mellon was the first American to practice supply-side economics. He supported cuts on income tax rates for all groups. The rate cut on the wealthiest Americans, from 73 percent to 25 percent, freed up investment capital and led to American economic growth during the 1920s. Also, the amount of revenue into the federal treasury increased sharply after tax rates were cut. The Myth of the Robber Barons has separate chapters on Vanderbilt, Hill, Schwab, Mellon, and the Scrantons. The author also has a conclusion, in which he looks at the textbook bias on the subject of Robber Barons and the rise of the U. S. in the late 1800s. This chapter explores three leading college texts in U. S. history and shows how they misread American history and disparage market entrepreneurs instead of the political entrepreneurs. This book is in its fifth edition, and is widely adopted in college and high school classrooms across the U. S.
Economics history is NOT my strong suit, and I’m not quite sure where you could look for statistics - it’s pretty difficult to find economic statistics dating before the 1930s and it’s even more difficult to find accurate economics statistics detailing what occured before the 1930s. You might want to take a look at Friedman’s and Schwartz’s Monetary History, as it deals a little bit with the secular price deflation (and economic growth) of the late 19th century. Besides this, the only other book that I’ve read that could offer you any insight would be Rothbard’s History of Money and Banking in the United States. Besides those two suggestions, I can only speculate. I’d suggest looking at some of the history books found at the Mises store.
Robert Higgs, The Transformation of the American Economy
I want to thank you all for your suggestions, I think I am limited to the resources in the campus’ library (and the web resources in the region), but I will cross check the books you mentioned, and some of those that seem appropriate from the History section reading list. Trying to be as impartial as I can with the paper, though I have my own views on the topic. At least its not a masters or doctoral thesis 
There are a ton of books on this website as PDF files if you hadn’t seen them already!
Oh yes, I have spent many hours reading some of the PDFs, love how much is available here on Mises Institute. Mostly the shorter ones though, since I am not a huge fan of reading from PDFs, so Human Action will have to wait until I can get some spare money on hand. The Mises Daily articles and the various audio lectures are really helping with my Principles of Micro class this semester. I am thinking of minoring in Economics, though I am not sure on that. My brother actually got an Econ degree from Columbia, but now is planning on joining the dark side, and heading to Law school.