Economic Disasters of the Twentieth Century
Edited by
Michael J. Oliver
Professor of Economics, École Supérieure de Commerce de
Rennes, France
and
Derek H. Aldcroft
Fellow, University of Leicester, UK
© Michael J. Oliver and Derek H. Aldcroft 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Glensanda House
Montpellier Parade
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 1UA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
ISBN 978 1 84064 589 7
Contents
List of contributors vi
Introduction 1
M.J. Oliver and D.H. Aldcroft
1 ‘Destruction . . . and misery’: the First World War 9
J. Singleton
2 The Great Depression, 1929–33 51
W.R. Garside
3 The Second World War as an economic disaster 83
N. Ferguson
4 The rise, fall and rise again of OPEC 133
M. Beenstock
5 Inflation in the twentieth century 162
F.H. Capie
6 Financial crises 182
M.J. Oliver
7 Stock market crashes 236
G.E. Wood
8 The demise of the command economies in the Soviet Union
and its outer empire 258
S. Morewood
9 The fatal inversion: the African growth disaster 312
D.H. Aldcroft
Index 355