Business in the age of extremes: essays in modern German and Austrian economic history

摘要

It is not unusual for experts immersed in a particular field of study to be reminded of the need to explain the importance and relevance of their subject to a wider audience. In that respect, the exemplary scholarship on display in Business in the Age of Extremes powerfully demonstrates the value of what business and economic history has to offer beyond the boundaries of the discipline. Ironically, in a post-communist era, recent systemic, financial failure and economic crisis has generated considerable debate and controversy over how governmental authorities should most effectively regulate business in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for society as a whole. Business in the Age of Extremes provides an instructive, historical perspective of a world in which capitalism was confronted with the catastrophe of world war, the rise of mass politics, the collapse of the banking system and, most threatening of all, alternative Marxist prescriptions. Taking its cue from Eric Hobsbawm's panoramic conceptualisation of the twentieth century as an 'Age of Extremes', this book considers how business in Germany and Austria interacted with politics in the face of the ideological extremism of the first half of the century. The essays naturally concentrate on Germany - the economic powerhouse of Europe -and how business reacted in the face of Wilhelmine authoritarianism, reconstruction after the First World War, the challenges of communism and socialism in the Weimar Republic, and the National Socialist dictatorship, war and the Holocaust.