Book Reviews

Matthew Jaremski of Colgate University reviews “The Great Depression of the 1930s: Lessons for Today”, by Nicholas Crafts and Peter Fearon. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Fourteen papers present an introduction to the Great Depression as it affected the advanced countries in the 1930s. Papers discuss depression and recovery in the 1930s—an overview; the 1930s—understanding the lessons; Europe's Great Depression—coordination failure after the First World War; reparations, deficits, and debt default—the Great Depression in Germany; disintegration of the international economy between the wars; the political lessons of Depression-era banking reform; the banking panics in the United States in the 1930s—some lessons for today; can contractionary fiscal policy be expansionary?— consolidation, sustainability, and fiscal policy impact in Britain in the 1930s; U.S. monetary and fiscal policy in the 1930s; what was new about the New Deal?; labor markets in recession and recovery—the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s; economic growth and recovery in the United States—1919–41; ““blood and treasure''—exiting the Great Depression and lessons for today; and fetters of gold and paper. Crafts is Professor of Economic History and Director of the Economic and Social Research Council Research Centre, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy, at the University of Warwick. Fearon is Emeritus Professor of Modern Economic History at the University of Leicester.”