Depression, War, and Cold War

Other books exist that warn of the dangers of empire and war. However, few, if any, of these books do so from a scholarly, informed economic standpoint. In Depression, War, and Cold War , Robert Higgs, a highly regarded economic historian, makes pointed, fresh economic arguments against war, showing links between government policies and the economy in a clear, accessible way. He boldly questions, for instance, the widely accepted idea that World War II was the chief reason the Depression-era economy recovered. The book as a whole covers American economic history from the Great Depression through the Cold War. Part I centers on the Depression and World War II. It addresses the impact of government policies on the private sector, the effects of wartime procurement policies on the economy, and the economic consequences of the transition to a peacetime economy after the victorious end of the war. Part II focuses on the Cold War, particularly on the links between Congress and defense procurement, the level of profits made by defense contractors, and the role of public opinion andnt ideological rhetoric in the maintenance of defense expenditures over time. This new book extends and refines ideas of the earlier book with new interpretations, evidence, and statistical analysis. This book will reach a similar audience of students, researchers, and educated lay people in political economy and economic history in particular, and in the social sciences in general.

ISBN 0195182928   Pages 238 ISBN13 9780195182927 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Oxford University Press Inc   Weight (grammes) 502 Imprint Oxford University Press Inc   Published in New York Format Hardback   Height (mm) 243 Publication date 13 Jul 2006   Width (mm) 165 Library of Congress 2005022028   Spine width (mm) 23 DEWEY 330.9   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

1		Regime uncertainty : why the Great Depression lasted so long and why prosperity resumed after the war		3
2		Private profit, public risk : institutional antecedents of the modern military procurement system in the rearmament program of 1940-41		30
3		Wartime prosperity? : a reassessment of the U.S. economy in the 1940s		61
4		Wartime socialization of investment : a reassessment of U.S. capital formation in the 1940s		81
5		From central planning to the market : the American transition, 1945-47		101
6		The Cold War economy : opportunity costs, ideology, and the politics of crisis		124
7		Hard coals make bad law : congressional parochialism verus national defense		152
8		Airplanes the Pentagon didn't want, but Congress did		176
9		Profits of U.S. defense contractors		186
10		Public opinion : a powerful predictor of U.S. defense spending		195

A reading of the distressingly true facts and arguments in these essays raises fundamental questions as to what can be done: how to find and apply the necessary correctives to the popular and scholarly willingness to remain emotionally invested in erroneous explanations, and how to avoid responding to social and economic problems by waging destructive war. This most recent addition to Robert Higg's body of work is an invaluable guide in that further quest. Richard Wall, American Studies Journal

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