Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy

by Knut Borchardt, Peter Lambert

Overview

This is the long-awaited English-language edition of Professor Borchardt's brilliant and controversial essays on German economic history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The essays are nontechnical in character, and thus should be accessible to a wide range of historians. In particular they reinforce and illustrate the sheer usefulness of economic history for political historians and indeed for anyone interested in how detailed historical evidence can be brought to bear on apparently intractable problems. The essays deal in the main with three topics: the determinants of economic growth in nineteenth-century Germany; the major patterns of Germany's economic growth in the longer term up to the present day; and the structural crisis of the Weimar Republic before the slump of the 1930s, and the total absence of any economic "miracle weapon" against Hitler's seizure of power. In particular, Professor Borchardt's controversial interpretations of the economic history of the interwar period have already triggered a lively debate which will be enhanced by the appearance of an English edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521368582
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/30/1991
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"...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 is informed, controversial, and thorough. Its failings in terms of clear statistical presentations and modelling should not detract from its usefulness as an introduction to a fascinating literature. It could certainly serve as supplementary reading for a modern European Economic History course." Douglas Fisher, Southern Economic Journal

"...this collection of stimulating and lively written essays provides the reader with a wide range of insights into modern German economic history. It will prove to be a valuable resource for both historians and economists." Journal of Comparative Economics

"This anthology does much to increase our knowledge of twentieth-century Europe." John Komlos, Journal of Modern History

From the Publisher