RHN 1/2023 | Publication
Gérard Béaur & Francesco Chiapparino (eds), Agriculture and the Great Depression. The Rural Crisis of the 1930s in Europe and the Americas, London: Routledge 2023.
What role did the agricultural sector play in the economic crash of 1929? The book takes seriously into account the hypothesis that agriculture had entered into crisis as early as the 1920s and played a major role in the emergence of the Great Depression of 1929.
Taking evidence from a lot of country cases across Europe and the Americas (Argentina, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom), this edited volume explores short-, medium- and long- term perspectives on the primary sector.
The monograph brings together the voices of an international panel of contributors who examine issues such as falling prices, industrial production, unemployment and the stagnation of aggregate demand. Together, they frame the interwar period as a pivotal turning point in the decline of subsistence agriculture and the growth of agricultural subsidies, which remain a key policy tool in many economies today.
This illuminating book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in economic history, agricultural history, globalization and economic development.