Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- 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
Preface to the German edition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- 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
Summary
The present collection unites essays and lectures on the history of economic development — mostly of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany. They came into being over the course of twenty years, as contributions to the important but at the same time difficult task of bringing the disciplines of economics and history closer together. However, the reader will notice in the selection of themes and in the manner of the treatment, that it is a matter here of historical studies produced by an economist.
In fact it was stimuli from current problems in economics which repeatedly led me to see the subject ‘in historical perspective’ and to ask whether, and what, might be learnt from history (especially in contributions 1, 5 and 11). But one does not only learn from history for the benefit of the present. One also learns from the present for the purpose of viewing history. Even at the risk of being accused of an unhistorical prejudice, I would like to acknowledge that this assumption underpins the majority of the essays in this collection. This is especially true of those essays which are concerned with conditions of growth in the nineteenth century, and of those devoted to the economic history of the Weimar Republic.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy , pp. xiii - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991