The Great Depression: Delayed Recovery and Economic Change in America, 1929-1939

by Michael A. Bernstein

• ISBN13: 9780521379854
• ISBN10: 0521379857
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-01-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book focuses on the real puzzle of 1930s America: why did the economy fail to recover from the downturn of 1929-1933? The author presents a convincing case that there were important long-run tendencies within the economy that are crucial to understanding this failure. From a wealth of detail about individual industries emerges a bold thesis about the interwar economy that emphasizes both cyclical and secular factors and shows that some sectors of the economy demonstrated technological dynamism during the 1930s. His approach cuts across the more traditional explanations which have been for the most part tests of economic theories rather than historical explanations of the depression.

Table of Contents

List of tables

List of figures

Editors' preface

Preface

Introduction: the puzzle of the 1930s

1. Long-term economic growth and the problem of recovery in the United States, 1929-39

2. The transformation of American industry in the interwar period

3. A reassessment of investment failure in the interwar economy

4. Technical change during the interwar years

5. The effective demand problem of the interwar period I: cyclical and structural unemployment

6. The effective demand problem of the interwar period II: cyclical and secular changes in final demand

7. New deal economic policy and the problem of recovery

8. Contemporary economic problems in historical perspective

Bibliography

Index.