Understanding the Great Depression has never been more relevant than in today's economic crisis. This edited collection provides an authoritative introduction to the Great Depression as it affected the advanced countries in the 1930s. The contributions are by acknowledged experts in the field and cover in detail the experiences of Britain, Germany, and, the United States, while also seeing the depression as an international disaster. The crisis entailed the collapse of the international monetary system, sovereign default, and banking crises in many countries in the context of the most severe downturn in western economic history. The responses included protectionism, regulation, fiscal and monetary stimulus, and the New Deal. The relevance to current problems facing Europe and the United States is apparent.
The chapters are written at a level which will be comprehensible to advanced undergraduates in economics and history while also being a valuable source of reference for policy makers grappling with the current economic crisis. The book will be of interest to modern macroeconomists and students of interwar history alike and seeks to bring the results of modern research in economic history to a wide audience. The focus is not only on explaining how the Great Depression happened but also on understanding what eventually led to the recovery from the crisis. A key feature is that every chapter has a full list of bibliographical references which can be a platform for further study.
1. Depression and Recovery in the 1930s: An Overview, Nicholas Crafts and Peter Fearon
2. The 1930s: Understanding the Lessons, Nicholas Crafts and Peter Fearon
3. Europe's Great Depression: coordination failure after the First World War, Nikolaus Wolf
4. Reparations, Deficits, and Debt Default: The Great Depression in Germany, Albrecht Ritschl
5. Disintegration of the International Economy between the Wars, Forrest Capie
6. The Political Lessons of Depression-era Banking Reform, Charles Calomiris
7. The Banking Panics in the United States in the 1930s: Some Lessons for Today, Michael Bordo and John Landon-Lane
8. Can Contractionary Fiscal Policy be Expansionary? Consolidation, Sustainability, and Fiscal Policy Impact in Britain in the 1930s, Roger Middleton
9. US Monetary and Fiscal Policy in the 1930s, Price Fishback
10. What was New about the New Deal?, Price Fishback and John Wallis
11. Labour Markets in the Interwar Period and Economic Recovery in the UK and the USA, Timothy J. Hatton and Mark Thomas
12. Economic Growth and Recovery in the United States: 1919-1941, Alexander J. Field
13. Blood and Treasure: Exiting the Great Depression and Lessons for Today, Kris James Mitchener and Joseph Mason
14. Fetters of Gold and Paper, Barry Eichengreen and Peter Temin
