Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy

Knut Borchardt (Author), Peter Lambert (Translated by)

9780521363105, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 May 1991

296 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.4 cm, 0.616 kg

' … a collection of illuminating, crisply written and pugnacious essays on the economic history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany, thematically united in that they rest on the application to specific situations of long-run perspectives. They have become 'classic' articles in that they have opened up major new areas of investigation.' Harold James, Princeton University

This collection of essays covers themes central to German economic history while considering their interaction with other historical phenomena. Among the essays Borchardt considers Germany's late start as an industrial nation, the West-East developmental gradient, key patterns of long-term economic development, and unusual changes in the phenomena of business cycles. The collection also contains the essays which have become the subject of so-called 'Borchardt controversies', in which hypotheses are presented on the economic causes of the collapse of the parliamentary regime by 1929–30, at the very end of the 'crisis before the crisis'. He also explains why there were no alternatives to the economic policies of the slump, and in particular why there was no 'miracle weapon' against Hitler's seizure of power. These are among the most original and stimulating contributions of recent years to the economic history of modern Germany and will be of interest to anyone who ponders deeply the meaning of history.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface to the English edition
Preface to the German editon
List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
Abbreviations
1. Protectionism in historical perspective
2. Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany
3. Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west-east developmental gradient
4. Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
5. Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
6. Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
7. The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
8. Germany's experience of inflation
9. Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
10. Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
11. Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]