Policy historian and Academic Program Director at the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University. His research areas focus on Economic Inequality, Economic History (focusing on U.S. add Caribbean, especially 19th century and slavery) and History of Economic Thought.
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 reexamination of Abraham Lincoln’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 American 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, Constitutional Political Economy, and Slavery & Abolition, as well as popular outlets including the New York Times, the Daily Caller and the History News Network.
Magness completed his undergraduate studies in political science and economics at the University of St. Thomas and obtained his Master of Public Policy and PhD at George Mason University. In addition to his role at IHS, he also teaches at GMU´s School of Public Policy.
