America's Great Depression

America's Great Depression is a 1963 treatise on the 1930s Great Depression and its root causes, written by Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard.

This article is about the book. For the Great Depression as it took place in the United States, see Great Depression in the United States.
America's Great Depression
First edition
AuthorMurray Rothbard
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectEconomic history
PublisherVan Nostrand
Publication date
1963
Media typePrint
Pages361
OCLC173706

The book blames government policy failures for the Great Depression, and challenges the widely-held view that capitalism is unstable.[1]

Summary

Rothbard holds the interventionist policies of the Herbert Hoover administration responsible for magnifying the duration, breadth, and intensity of the Great Depression.[2] Rothbard explains the Austrian theory of the business cycle, which holds that government manipulation of the money supply sets the stage for the familiar "boom-bust" phases of the modern market. He then details the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve from 1921 to 1929 as evidence that the depression was essentially caused not by speculation, but by government and central bank interference in the market.

Publishing history
  • 1st Edition: Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand, 1963. Hardcover. 361 pages.
  • 2nd Edition: Menlo Park, California: Institute for Humane Studies, 1972. 361 pages. ISBN 0-8402-5003-7.
  • 3rd Edition: New York: New York University Press. Co-sponsored by Institute for Humane Studies. 1975. Paperback. 361 pages. ISBN 0-8362-0647-9. Hardcover ISBN 0-8362-0634-7.
  • 4th Edition: New York: Richardson & Snyder/E.P. Dutton. 1983. Hardcover. 361 pages. ISBN 0-943940-03-6.
  • 5th Edition: Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, June 15, 2000. Hardcover. 368 pages. ISBN 0-945466-05-6. (With an introduction by Paul Johnson)

References
  1. Kaldis, Byron (2013). Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences. United States: SAGE Publications. p. 44. ISBN 9781506332611.
  2. Herbert Hoover's Depression, excerpted from chapter 7 – LewRockwell.com
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