The Great Depression Revisited: Essays on the Economics of the Thirties 1972 edition

Marc Notes: Some articles have been translated from the Dutch.; Includes bibliographical references. Table of Contents: I. General Surveys.- The Great Crash of October, 1929.- International Consequences of the Great Crisis.- The Influence of the Great Depression on Economic Theory.- II. Political Aspects of the Great Depression.- Government Action against the Great Depression.- Europe and the Great Crisis.- The Depression and World Policy.- Waiting for The World Revolution: Soviet Reactions to the Great Depression.- III. Specific Economic Factors in the Great Depression.- Agriculture in the Great Depression. World Market Developments and European Protectionism.- Agriculture in the Industrial Economies of the West during the Great Depression, with Special Reference to the United States.- Business in the Great Depression.- IV. Economic effects of the great depression outside the U. S. A. and Western Europe.- The United States and the Non-European Periphery during the Early Years of the Great Depression.- Then Came the Great Depression. Japan s Interwar Years.- The British Empire Economies in the Great Depression.- The Impact of the Great Depression on Eastern Europe.- V. Social And Sociological Aspects of the Great Depression.- Government, Labour and Trade Unions.- Trade Unions and the World Economic Crisis. The Case of Germany.- The Depression and the Intellectuals.- Biographical Notes on Contributors."Publisher Marketing: For a quarter of a century the industrial Western world has been living in the euphoria of continuous improvements in welfare, based on economic programming, increasing integration and terms of trade which favor indus- trial countries and discriminate against agricultural regions. It is true that recessions have periodically recurred during these years: time and again, however, government intervention succeeded in reducing them to mere in- ventory cycles. In contrast with the twenties and thirties, when economic policy in the West focused on fighting unemployment and stimulating investment, the postwar period has been characterized by a permanent concern to curb inflationary pressure, which was partly due to full-employ- ment. The present welfare economy has given rise to a growth of the pro- pensity to consume such that public policy has often been constrained to limit consumption and stimulate saving. In this new framework it has perhaps been forgotten that today's welfare owes much to the lessons from the past. The bitter world crisis experience of the thirties in particular has exerted a fruitful and decisive influence upon the search for means to prevent, eliminate or soften the cyclical fluctuations which the process of economic growth involves. Forty years after the out- break of the greatest economic crisis ever, it seems useful to draw up the balancesheet of the lessons learned from it. There exists a large literature about the depression of the thirties.