A renegotiation of NAFTA and a trade war with China have kept tariffs and trade agreements in the news in the early twenty-first century. Tariffs, trade barriers, and the potential consequences of both are complex. This book presents a difficult subject in a straightforward and interesting manner. The use of historical and cultural tidbits, such as how the press ridiculed the embargo of 1870 by referring to it as O grab me! which is embargo spelled backward, will delight readers. They’ll learn how South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over tariffs in 1832, almost thirty years before it actually did secede. A discussion of the theory and history of tariffs and trade barriers puts the concept in context, while recent examples illuminate how they work in practice.