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Using a novel data set of over 3,500 public and private firms, we construct the network of executive and director connections prior to the 1929 financial market crash. We find that more connected firms have 17% higher 10-year survival rates. Consistent with a working capital channel, the results are strongest for small, private, cash-poor firms, and firms located in counties with high bank suspension rates. Moreover, connections to cash-rich firms that increase accounts receivable matter the most. Our results suggest that network connections can play a stabilizing role during a financial crisis by easing the flow of capital to constrained firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there a trade-off between the short-run and long-run real effects of monetary policy "leaning against the wind"? We provide novel evidence on this question from the United States in 1920–1921. Our identification strategy exploits county-level variation in access to the Federal Reserve's discount window, and hand-collected data on banking and agriculture in Illinois. In the short term, tightened conditions at the discount window decreased bank lending and lowered crop prices and farm revenues. In the long term, however, they lowered debt-to-output levels and led to greater farmland utilization, suggesting an avoidance of debt overhang problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how selective default expectations affect the pricing of sovereign bonds in a historical laboratory: the German default of the 1930s. We analyze yield differentials between identical government bonds traded across various creditor countries before and after bond market segmentation. We show that, when secondary debt markets are segmented, a large selective default probability can be priced in bond yield spreads. Selective default risk accounted for one-third of the yield spread of German external bonds over the risk-free rate during the 1930s. Selective default expectations arose from differences in the creditor countries' economic power over the debtor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine innovation following the Great Depression using data on a century's worth of U.S. patents and a difference-in-differences design that exploits regional variation in the crisis severity. Harder-hit areas experienced large and persistent declines in independent patenting, mostly reflecting the disruption in access to finance during the crisis. This decline was larger for young and inexperienced inventors and lower-quality patents. In contrast, innovation by large firms increased, especially among young and inexperienced inventors. Overall, the Great Depression contributed to the decline in technological entrepreneurship and accelerated the shift of innovation into larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagrams demonstrating principles of formal arrangement (what is commonly called composition or design) were pervasive in the production and interpretation of pictorial art in the United States throughout the first half of the twentieth century. This essay surveys three of the most influential: a Japan-inspired design manual written by art educator Arthur Dow and first published in 1899; a WWI-era proportional scheme devised by illustrator and amateur classical archeologist Jay Hambidge, and a series of essays from 1926 on the ‘mechanics of form organization’ by painter (and, at the time, Art Students League of New York instructor), Thomas Hart Benton. These and similar devices were an integral part of the relentless standardization and self-conscious modernization of artists’ methods modeled on industrial processes of mass production and pursued between the Civil War and the Great Depression by educators and policy-makers interested in establishing the teaching of art in the United States on a more practical basis than that provided by the European academic tradition. Despite their once near-ubiquity and pivotal role in the development of several generations of American modernists, including Georgia O’Keeffe, George Bellows and Jackson Pollock, as described here, these hugely popular devices are almost entirely forgotten today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Plunder for Profit: A Socio-environmental History of Tobacco Farming in Southern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe" is a book that explores the complex relationship between tobacco farming and the environment in Zimbabwe. The book discusses how tobacco farming, while being a major source of income for the country, also leads to deforestation, land degradation, air and water pollution, and pesticide poisoning. The author, Elijah Doro, who has personal experience as a tobacco farmer, argues for the need for new agricultural systems that can phase out tobacco in Zimbabwe. The book provides a historical perspective on the socio-environmental impacts of tobacco farming and highlights the need for sustainable alternatives. [Extracted from the article]

This paper employs quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the link between banking competition, branching and financial distress during the interwar period in Europe, focusing on Italy as a case study. Regression analysis and a systematic review of printed sources show that banks experiencing distress had opened scores of branches and operated in areas with harsher competition. Poor managerial choices led banks to have higher operational costs, pushing them to more remunerative but riskier activities. The 1920s saw a profound transformation of the Italian banking system, with extensive branch expansion and cut‐throat competition for deposits. This paper argues that these changes in the structure of the banking system rendered it more fragile when the international crisis hit. Available evidence on other European countries suggests that Italy was not an isolated case. The study contributes to the literature on banking crises during the Great Depression and the effects of banking competition on financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We trace the long‐term performance of the UK art market across a broad set of crises: world wars, economic recessions, financial crises, inflationary periods, and changes in monetary policy. By means of digitalized historical auction archives, we construct art price indices from the early twentieth century onwards and disclose that annual art auction value grew, in real terms, more than seven‐fold over this period. The arithmetic annual real return and risk amount to 3.6 per cent and 20.1 per cent, respectively. Art returns plummeted at the onset of wars, but turned positive in the second half of wars when they outperformed stocks, suggesting that art was seen as a safe haven in times of political turmoil. During wars, smaller – and thus more transportable – paintings obtained higher returns. Art returns are sensitive to economic and financial crises, with the largest slumps occurring during the Great Depression, oil crisis, recessions of the early 1980s and early 1990s, and the Great Recession. We also document changes in art preferences for paintings' sizes, schools, liquid art, and artists' nationalities across crises. Art enters a broad optimal asset portfolio both in non‐crisis periods and during war times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article "Please Tell About Dad": Anxiety and Nostalgia in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman" by Fukui Huang explores the themes of anxiety and nostalgia in postwar America as depicted in Arthur Miller's play. The text delves into the anxious conditions of characters like Willy and his sons, examining their struggles with masculine identity and societal pressures. Through a detailed analysis of the play, the article highlights how Miller uses memory episodes to portray the existential anxiety that haunts middle-class American men amidst social and economic changes. [Extracted from the article]

The article titled "The Housing Act of 1949 in Images" provides a visual exploration of the impact of the 1949 Housing Act on urban redevelopment and housing in the United States. The article includes images and graphs that depict various aspects of the housing projects authorized under the act, such as slum clearance, urban renewal, demolition, and the construction of high-rise apartments. It also highlights the racial discrimination and challenges faced by Black communities in accessing fair housing and the role of homeownership in generational wealth. The article concludes with the mention of the HOPE VI program, which marked the end of conventional public housing. [Extracted from the article]

"Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair" and "Black Hair in a White World" are two books that explore the significance of Black hair in relation to politics, discrimination, and self-image. The books feature essays and personal narratives that discuss the natural hair movement and its connection to Black American culture and identity. The books also analyze cultural artifacts and artworks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the history and representation of Black hair. While the books offer valuable insights, they do not include perspectives from younger generations who use their natural hair as a form of artistic expression. [Extracted from the article]

The article reviews Jacques Schuhmacher's book "Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections: A research guide," which provides a framework for researchers and museum professionals to uncover the tragic stories of families and art lost during the Holocaust. The book contextualizes provenance research, emphasizing the importance of commemorating victims and seeking justice to challenge the lingering impact of Nazi actions. It covers Nazi spoliation, restitution efforts post-1945, and practical research techniques for provenance work, highlighting the complexities and challenges faced by researchers in uncovering historical truths. The book is available in multiple formats, including a freely accessible PDF, and features historical photographs that shed light on Nazi looting and persecution. [Extracted from the article]

Bernice Thurman Hunter's Booky trilogy depicts the economic hardships of a white, working-class girl nicknamed Booky who lived in Toronto, Canada, in the Great Depression. This article analyzes hundreds of letters sent to Hunter from two cohorts of readers: adults who grew up in the 1930s and school-age children coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s. The adult letters brim with details of their own Depression-era childhoods, while young readers express shock at how difficult things were in 1930s and compare Booky's experiences to their own challenges and privileges. The letters' revelations demonstrate how readers used a piece of historical fiction to grapple with the past—be it their own childhoods or the history of childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economists became skeptical about the benefits of free trade for developing countries during the Great Depression, but in the 1960s some had come to recognize the problems with import substitution policies and the benefits of encouraging exports. This article examines how four economists who led this transition—Ian Little, Jagdish Bhagwati, Anne Krueger, and Bela Balassa—came to their views and helped build a new professional consensus on trade policy and economic development. In each case, practical experience, and empirical observation, particularly from India, helped shape their opinions, persuading two of the four to revise their previous beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of two books, "At the Center: American Thought and Culture in the Mid-Twentieth Century" and "The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History," which explore the role of ideas in shaping American culture and society during the mid-twentieth century. The authors examine the influence of ideas on practical power and the relationship between ideas and culture. The books offer insights into the movement of ideas across cultures and their impact on intellectual history. The article also discusses the transdisciplinary perspective of "At the Center" and its relevance to the social sciences, including economics. It highlights the search for core principles and consensus in midcentury thought and culture, as well as efforts to broaden Americans' intellectual horizons after World War II. The text delves into the intellectual and cultural shifts in America from 1948 to 1963, focusing on centering and decentering tendencies. It explores various aspects of American culture during this period, such as attempts to define a distinct American culture, the influence of economics on thought, the rise of postmodernism and identity politics, and the impact of globalization. The authors argue that while there were efforts to establish a unified American culture, there were also movements towards decentering and fragmentation. The text suggests that understanding the changes in American economics during this time is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of American thought and culture. [Extracted from the article]

Strong claims have been made about the significance of the concept of security in modern governance. The study of security has developed from its post-1945 focus on the state’s role in securing the population from external threat to include broader and critical perspectives, which seek to embed the concept of security in its cultural and historical contexts. This article traces the origins of contemporary security culture in Australia to the first half of the twentieth century. It examines the concept of security from debates about the provision of national insurance and the amelioration of the suffering of the Great Depression to the Curtin and Chifley Labor governments’ postwar reconstruction program in the 1940s. The article argues that the origins of national security culture in the present lie in mid-twentieth-century debates about the role of the state in securing the population from economic deprivation, unemployment and ill health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New data covering 23 countries reveal that banking crises of the Great Depression coincided with a sharp international increase in deposits at savings institutions and life insurance. Deposits fled from commercial banks to alternative forms of savings. This fueled a credit crunch since other institutions did not replace bank lending. While asset prices fell, savings held in savings institutions and life insurance companies increased as a share of GDP and in real terms. These findings provide new explanations for the fall in credit and aggregate demand in the 1930s. They illustrate the need to consider nonbank financial institutions when studying banking crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article in Diplomacy & Statecraft honors the life and work of Brian McKercher, a scholar in international history. McKercher's research focused on themes such as great powers, diplomacy, and the impact of leaders on history. His contributions to understanding British-American relations during the interwar period have been significant, and he has also made a mark as an editor and teacher in the field. The article serves as a tribute to McKercher's dedication to the study of war and peace, acknowledging his influence as a mentor and colleague in the academic community. [Extracted from the article]

The article provides a response to J. Bradford DeLong's book, "Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century," emphasizing its significance in examining the economic developments and challenges throughout the twentieth century. The author acknowledges the importance of grand narratives in understanding historical events but also emphasizes the need for humility and openness to alternatives. The text discusses the conflict between Hayek and Polanyi, portraying it as a conflict between capital and labor over the meaning of democracy. The neoliberal turn of the 1970s is described as an offensive by capital against labor, leading to the persistence of neoliberalism due to the crisis and defeat of postwar social democracy. [Extracted from the article]

"Slouching towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century" by J. Bradford DeLong is a comprehensive analysis of the global economy from 1870 to 2010. The book examines this period through an economic lens and identifies three key factors that contributed to unprecedented economic growth. However, it acknowledges that humanity never achieved utopia due to the unresolved political question of how to distribute the abundance of production. While the book has received praise for its grand narrative, some scholars have called for more attention to be given to other continents, the history of economic ideas, environmental damage, and demographic factors. Overall, the book provides a thought-provoking account of history during this period, but there is room for improvement in terms of organization and inclusion of additional topics. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the growing trend of unionization among tech workers in the United States. It acknowledges the significant power that tech workers possess in both their workplaces and the broader economy. The article compares the organizing efforts of tech workers to historical labor movements in other industries and discusses the challenges they face due to the industry's resistance to unions. Despite these obstacles, there has been a noticeable increase in tech worker organizing, resulting in thousands of workers joining unions and securing collective bargaining agreements. However, this represents only a small portion of the overall tech industry. The article explores the potential for a tech worker movement, highlighting the development of networks and shared narratives among tech workers, as well as instances of worker activism and unionization efforts. It also delves into different theories of class, such as the Professional-Managerial Class (PMC) and Contradictory Class Locations, and emphasizes the importance of addressing issues like compensation and job security in tech worker mobilizations. The article discusses the transformation of worker consciousness and the unique challenges of organizing in the tech industry. It identifies progressive workforces and lower-paid workers as potential strongholds for majority unionism in tech. Lastly, the article draws parallels between tech workers and autoworkers in the historical labor movement and considers the possibility of industry-wide settlements in the tech industry. [Extracted from the article]

Over the past century, crises have enabled the construction of Australian foreign policy orders, or sets of ideas that reduce uncertainty and stabilise interests. However, such ideas have also engendered misplaced certainty and renewed crisis. Developing a constructivist framework, I stress the ways in which ideas can over time impede the use of information and fuel instability and crises. In a staged model, I trace the construction of ties with "great and powerful friends", their conversion in ways that fuel misplaced certainty, and the construction of crises which advance change. Empirically, I then trace the construction of an early Imperial order, misplaced certainty in UK‐backed austerity and appeasement, and crises in the Great Depression and fall of Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Gabriel Copper, a native copper specimen from the Central mine in Keweenaw County, Michigan, which is part of the collection at the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum of Michigan Technological University. The Gabriel Copper is known for its aesthetic balance, quality of crystallization, lovely patina, interesting twinning, and perfect size. It has been extensively used to represent the museum and its heritage, appearing on book covers, magazine covers, articles, brochures, and business cards. The article also provides information about Donald C. Gabriel, the collector who purchased the specimen, and the history and collections of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum. [Extracted from the article]

"Leave It: Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns" is a nine-part documentary that delves into the history and cultural significance of baseball in America, with a focus on New York City and Boston. While the film acknowledges some iconic moments and players from other regions, it has been criticized for its bias towards these cities and for neglecting the achievements of teams from elsewhere. The documentary also explores topics such as racial and gender barriers, players vs. owners, and rural vs. urban dynamics within the sport. Seamus Kearney, the author of this text, offers a critical review of the series, questioning its portrayal of certain players, its depiction of gender segregation, and its treatment of players and owners. Kearney concludes by stating that while the series is praiseworthy in terms of storytelling and research, it may be too lengthy for some viewers. [Extracted from the article]

The idea of 100% reserve requirements against demand deposits received a renewed impetus in recent years. In 1933, a group of University of Chicago economists, led by Frank Knight and Henry Simons, circulated two memoranda that proposed the scheme in what became known as the Chicago Plan of Banking Reform. That same idea had been proposed in 1926 by Frederick Soddy, a Nobel Laureate in chemistry. Soddy claimed precedence, a claim that caught on. I provide evidence showing that Knight, and probably Simons, conceived the idea of 100% reserves prior to the publication of Soddy's 1926 book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Margot Canaday's article "From 'Queer Labor' to Queer Career" explores the history of LGBTQ workers in the United States. Canaday argues that LGBTQ workers were at the forefront of navigating workplaces in the post-Fordist work world that emerged in the 1970s. She challenges the assumption that the 1950s and 1960s were exclusively bad for queer workers, highlighting that they found opportunities to be open in various forms of work during this time. Canaday also examines the experiences of queer workers in the context of neoliberalism and emphasizes the continued inequality faced by women, transgender people, and people of color. [Extracted from the article]

This paper describes the establishment of banking supervision in Italy and its operation between 1926 and 1936, using a narrative approach based on previously classified documents from the Bank of Italy's Historical Archives. This case is particularly interesting from the international perspective, Italy having been the first European country to assign substantial supervision to its central bank, a few years before the 1929 crisis. Notwithstanding insufficient regulation and a light touch concerning the four major mixed banks, we document considerable enforcement of the law, which went beyond the initial provisions, thanks to the rather proactive supervisory approach adopted by the Bank of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a review of the book "Entrenchment, Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies" by Paul Starr. The book explores the concept of entrenchment and how political institutions become entrenched over time. It discusses mechanisms of entrenchment such as strategic entrenchment, positive feedback loops, and cultural entrenchment. The book also examines the link between property and political power, the entrenchment of democracy, and the entrenchment of the modern welfare state. It suggests that entrenchment can be influenced by factors such as political polarization, globalization, and critical junctures in history. The book provides insights for management scholars studying institutions and their socioeconomic consequences. [Extracted from the article]

There has still been too little detailed work on the protectionism that emerged in the wake of the Great Depression. In this paper we explore the experiences of two countries that have been largely neglected in the literature, the Netherlands and Netherlands East Indies (NEI). How did these traditionally free‐trading economies respond to the Depression? We construct a detailed product‐level database of tariff and non‐tariff barriers to trade on the basis of primary sources. While ad valorem tariff increases in the Netherlands were largely due to deflation, the country protected agriculture and textiles in a number of ways. Once quotas are taken into account, trade restrictiveness indices suggest that protection in the Netherlands and NEI was comparable to protection in the UK and India, respectively. The NEI quota system was largely geared to protecting Dutch exporters, and succeeded in doing so, but the reverse was not true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the author's discovery of a charge nurse ledger from the Red Cross Outpost Hospital in Paddockwood, Saskatchewan, revealing intimate family medical histories and broader community health trends. Topics include the hospital's role in supporting local residents during the Great Depression, the evolution of medical record-keeping over the decades, and the ethical considerations of accessing and sharing personal health information.

Thomas Sutpen's descent from the mountains in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936), a fall from the mountain paradise to the evils of slaveholding society, has long been considered comparable to the biblical Fall of Man. Surprisingly, however, the social, moral, and political overtones of Sutpen's Fall have been critically overlooked to a certain extent. This article explores Sutpen's descent from the mountains as well as the innocence that informs his design in order to showcase the full extent of Faulkner's metaphor of the Fall. I contend that the examination of Sutpen's Fall from a moral and sociological standpoint establishes an ideologically profound context in which the ethical and socioeconomic implications of Thomas Sutpen's story can be thoroughly investigated. Specifically, the article identifies Sutpen's commitment to his self-interest at the expense of others as his major transgression. For this reason, it maintains that the implications of Sutpen's story transcend the literary boundaries of the novel's nineteenth century timeframe and also comment insightfully on the moral and socioeconomic situation of the Great Depression, the devastating period within which Absalom, Absalom! was authored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores connections between domestic worker activism and anti-fascism in the United States—two topics that historians have usually considered separately. Through the lens of Black domestic worker and organizer Rosa Rayside, we see the strong links between the two political movements. In 1934, after co-founding the New York Domestic Workers Union (DWU), Rayside attended the World Congress of Women against War and Fascism in Paris. That congress defined fascism broadly, around nationalism, racism, repression of radicals, denial of civil liberties, capitalist and imperialist greed and warmongering, and threats to women. Notably, the congress specifically identified challenging U.S. racism and defending labor rights for domestic workers as part of a global anti-fascist fight. Influenced by this congress, and by communist organizing in Harlem during the Great Depression, Rayside and the DWU drew on anti-fascism ideologically and organizationally in the years that followed. Rayside worked to include domestic workers in labor and social security legislation, testifying before U.S. Congress in 1935 and helping to form the anti-fascist National Negro Congress (NNC) in 1936. Although their immediate legislative achievements were limited, the strategies that Rayside and the DWU pioneered—collaborating with community and political organizations, spearheading legislation, and shaping understandings of Black women's "triple oppression" based on race, class, and gender—were vital to the Black anti-fascist movement in the United States and shaped gains by domestic workers in later decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how policy announcements can be used to manage expectations. Using regional variation in radio exposure, I evaluate the impact of FDR's 1935 Fireside Chat, in which he showcased the introduction of important social policies, establishing a new expansionary cycle of the New Deal. I document that cities with higher exposure to the announcement exhibited a significant increase in spending on durable goods. The estimated effect is consistent with changes in expectations in line with the policies announced. This paper shows the power of communication as a policy tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been evident in macroeconomic performance indicators globally. With the adoption of lockdown measures varying in duration across nations, economic activity experienced a downturn reminiscent of the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the time, Keynes' effective demand model accentuated the importance of using expansionary fiscal and monetary policy. So, the public sector plays a significant role when an economy faces a crisis. We can easily comprehend the status and role of the public sector during the pandemic, particularly in terms of health, security and policing. A state of lockdown during the pandemic led to widespread job losses, business closures, and supply chain disruptions, which had severe economic consequences. This study highlights the potential of the effective demand theory in addressing the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic, particularly in India, while advocating for amplified government participation. In addition, the study also aligns with the Keynesian approach of robust government intervention to mitigate the repercussions of the pandemic and underscores the pivotal role of the public sector in navigating through the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Girl Who Flew Under the Brooklyn Bridge" is a book that explores the experiences of Italian immigrants in the South Bronx during the early 20th century. The author, Emilio Iodice, weaves together a collection of stories that highlight the challenges and triumphs of these communities. The book emphasizes the importance of family, community, and core values in navigating the hardships of assimilation and pursuing the American Dream. It also touches on the history of female aviators, including Viola Gentry, who flew under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1926. Overall, the book offers a rich and vivid portrayal of life in New York City during this era. [Extracted from the article]