Why the Great Depression was "Great"
The main problem in most analyses of the Great Depression in the United States lays in the fact that most information regarding the global economy as a whole, and the actors there within, is largely omitted along with the political atmosphere and dominant social structures at the time - The effects of devaluations or surplus production on trading partners, for a simple example. Additionally, people tend to forget that this was a world phenomena. So, while economists of different allegiances attempt(ed) to debunk one another and focus on the domestic workings of the Capitalist mode of production confined to certain assumptive modules, Kindleberger takes on this larger problem. To say that this is not important is to say that the world itself is not complex - a folly that I suspect even zealots of the Mises institute would be hesitant to make. The difficulty of this task, and one which I believe Kindleberger tackles with finesse, is this complexity itself.
Ultimately, the main point of this brilliant work is simply that, with the decline of the British Empire, no heir rose to both stabilize and legitimize the international structure. States turned inwards. Indeed, as the no-named reviewer above states, those who devalued the quickest or dumped the gold standard the earliest enjoyed the quickest recoveries. The parallels, which Kindleberger makes in subsequent works (and I believe touches on in this work as well), to political happenings are immense. The withdrawal of the states from the structured world order of the 19th and early 20th century only fostered the miscommunication and mistrust so pervasive in international relations. With the rise of beggar thy neighbor policies, largely a product of the World Depression and the withdrawal from a relatively cooperative, legitimized system, the potential for conflict was definitely magnified.
This is an essential work for anyone interested in the Great Depression.
Kindleberger's approach was perhaps so difficult that it is still unique in itself.
Benchmark Study of the Causes of the Great Depression
This book is outstanding at describing the economics of the Great Depression. In his time, Kindleberger was regarded by many as the highest authority on the economics of the Great Depression. He also was a regular economist of the highest order. (Check out his other books.) This book is outstanding analysis of the Great Depression.
Kindleberger explains that the reason for the Depression was a lack of a stable international economic structure. In other words, the financial structure we enjoy today simply did not exist at the time. The flawed international system could only have led to a financial crisis eventually.
The financial world used a flawed gold standard - and this book describes why it was a disaster. Great Britain (and finance minister Winston Churchill specifically) played a leading role in implementing the flawed international system. Then when the depression hit, Great Britain quickly dumped the gold standard - hypocrosy - and recoverd the soonest. Herbert Hoover rigidly stick to the gold standard. FDR dumped it once becoming president, and it brought about a recovery. But a full recovery from the great depths of the Great Depression did not occur until the massive spending of World War II.
Why did this all happen? There simply was no financial structure in place to exact a powerful enough of a force on the global financial system. Great Britain had abdicated the leadership role and the United States was yet unwilling to assume that role. Nations turned inward (and I would add that countries that devalued quickly faired best).
Macroeconomics had not yet been developed. Keynes General Theory only came out in the mid-1930's, and then it was largely unknown. Friedman would not develop his monetary theory until well after the Great Depression had ended.
The book is not the only explanation of the Great Depression, nor pretends to be, but is a highly valid one and should be considered by anyone seriously interested in the subject. This book is a classic for the subject.
