The German Slump: Politics and Economics 1924-1936

by Harold James

The collapse of the German economy in the interwar years provides the most dramatic case-study of a democracy faced with the major economic problems--world recession, instability in international finance, management and labor problems, and unemployment--which resulted in the advent of Nazism.
This is the first survey of the German "slump" in English and the first in any language since important archives became available. James argues that long-term weaknesses caused by structural rigidity, increasingly conservative investment choices, poor labor relations, high taxation, and an
inefficient agrarian sector led to economic and political instability. This study shows the connections between long-term weaknesses and particular policy responses in a crucial period of 20th-century European history.

484 pages, Hardcover

First published April 10, 1986

About the author

Harold James is Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University.