Abstract

Examining the 1930s and the different reactions to the crisis, this volume offers a global comparative perspective that includes a comparison across time to give insight into the contemporary global recession. Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain with their antidemocratic, authoritarian or fascistic answers to the economic crisis are compared not only to an opposite European perspective – the Swedish example – but also to other global perspectives and their political consequences in Japan, China, India, Turkey, Brazil and the United States. The book offers no recipe for economic, social or political action in today’s recession, but it shows a wide range of reactions in the past, some of which led to catastrophe.

Helmut Konrad has been Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Graz since 1984. He has held visiting fellowships at Cornell University, University of Waterloo, European University Institute Firenze and Yale University. His research focuses on labour history and cultural history.

Wolfgang Maderthaner has been the scientific and administrative director of the Austrian Labour History Society since 1983 and was appointed General Director of the Austrian National Archives in April 2012. He has published in several languages, most recently der Rest ist Österreich. Das Werden der Ersten Republik 1918–1920 (2008), Neoliberalismus und die Krise des Sozialen. Das Beispiel Österreich (2010), and L´autoliquidation de la raison. Les sciences de la culture et la crise du social (2010).

“Several essays are truly innovative, and the collection as a whole offers the English reader an overview of the crises of the 1930s from an original comparative global perspective. In some cases, there is no comparable coverage in English for the period and historical literature.”  ·  Malachi Hacohen, Duke University