The Great Depression Revisited

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-X

   PDF

2. General Surveys

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. The Great Crash of October, 1929

      • Erling A. Erickson

      Pages 3-12

   3. International Consequences of the Great Crisis

      • A. Coppé

      Pages 13-23

   4. The Influence of the Great Depression on Economic Theory

      • Mark Eyskens

      Pages 24-42

3. Political Aspects of the Great Depression

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43

      PDF

   2. Government Action against the Great Depression

      • Karl Erich Born

      Pages 45-58

   3. Europe and the Great Crisis

      • Fernand Baudhuin

      Pages 59-68

   4. The Depression and World Policy

      • J. Néré

      Pages 69-75

   5. Waiting for the World Revolution: Soviet Reactions to the Great Depression

      • Laszlo M. Tikos

      Pages 76-87

4. Specific Economic Factors in the Great Depression

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89

      PDF

   2. Agriculture in the Great Depression. World Market Developments and European Protectionism

      • Michael Tracy

      Pages 91-119

   3. Agriculture in the Industrial Economies of the West during the Great Depression, with Special Reference to the United States

      • Wayne D. Rasmussen, Jane M. Porter

      Pages 120-133

   4. Business in the Great Depression

      • Hans Jaeger

      Pages 134-142

5. Economic Effects of the Great Depression Outside the U.S.A. and Western Europe

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

      PDF

   2. The United States and the Non-European Periphery during the Early Years of the Great Depression

      • Heywood Fleisig

      Pages 145-181

   3. Then Came the Great Depression Japan’s Interwar Years

      • Kozo Yamamura

      Pages 182-211

   4. The British Empire Economies in the Great Depression

      • Ian M. Drummond

      Pages 212-235

   5. The Impact of the Great Depression on Eastern Europe

      • Hans Raupach

      Pages 236-245

6. Social and Sociological Aspects of the Great Depression

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 247-247

      PDF

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.

• Germany
• USA
• Unemployment
• agriculture
• development
• economic growth
• economic policy
• economic theory
• economy
• employment
• growth
• inflation
• public policy
• trade
• welfare

• University of Louvain, Belgium

  Herman Wee

Policies and ethics