WWII prosperity and historians

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  • #15974
    samgheb
    Participant

    I’m writing a term paper this semester on whether or not WWII got America out of the depression and by extension if war creates wealth. I saw Tom Woods’ ressource page on this and I have posted a question to Herbener for the economic literature on this subject.

    However my project will also deal with historians and their reliance on economists. So I’m hoping I can get some examples of historians on either side of the debate.

    #15975
    woods
    Participant

    It is difficult to find a historian who questions the orthodoxy. Gene Smiley’s book The American Economy in the Twentieth Century challenges it, but he is very much in the minority. You might look at Robert Higgs’s book Depression, War, and Cold War, and follow the footnotes to uncover the specific people he identifies (though he may be sparring more with economists than with historians). But seriously, the only problem you will have will be in finding historians who question the war prosperity.

    #15976
    samgheb
    Participant

    I’m planning to write Joseph Salerno to ask about the historiograpy of this topic. What was the consensus before WWII? I assume that Keynes+WWII changed the perception of war but perhaps there was already seeds of it before.

    I’m sure I will get the countered with reference to Hitler’s economy. Is there any work that refutes the so called economic miracle under Hitler?

    #15977
    samgheb
    Participant

    I have tried writing Joseph Salerno but he doesn’t really respond. Does Prof. Woods or any of the other scholars here know how war was viewed in relation to prosperity before WWII?

    Through the ages different figures have argued the positives of war. “War is the father of all things” by Heraclitus comes to mind as a particularly vile example of how some intellectuals have viewed war.

    #15978
    woods
    Participant

    On Hitler, see Adam Tooze’s book The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. Check out reviews of the book online for an overview. See also Hans Hoppe’s discussion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYEUHk16yk4

    I’m afraid I don’t know about how war was viewed in connection with prosperity or poverty before World War II. This sounds like a good master’s thesis. I would bet in the pre-Keynesian age people were far more sensible and realistic.

    #15979
    woods
    Participant

    Also, I think the person to contact is Robert Higgs. If you contact me through the contact page of the site, I will send you his email address.

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