America's Great Depression

America's Great Depression

Cover of the Mises Institute's 2000 edition of America's Great Depression.
Author Murray Rothbard
Country United States
Language English
Subject Economic history
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Van Nostrand
Publication date
 1963
Media type Print
Pages 361
OCLC 173706

America's Great Depression is a 1963 treatise on the 1930s Great Depression and its root causes, written by Austrian School economist and author Murray Rothbard. The fifth edition was released in 2000.

Brief summary

Rothbard holds the interventionist policies of the Herbert Hoover administration responsible for magnifying the duration, breadth, and intensity of the Great Depression.[1] 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.

Table of contents

Part I: Business Cycle Theory

1. The Positive Theory of the Cycle
2. Keynesian Criticisms of the Theory
3. Some Alternative Explanations of Depression: A Critique

Part II: The Inflationary Boom: 1921-1929

4. The Inflationary Factors
5. The Development of the Inflation
6. Theory and Inflation: Economists and the Lure of a Stable Price Level

Part III: The Great Depression: 1929-1933

7. Prelude to Depression: Mr. Hoover and Laissez-Faire
8. The Depression Begins: President Hoover Takes Command
9. 1930
10. 1931—"The Tragic Year"
11. The Hoover New Deal of 1932
12. The Close of the Hoover Term

Appendix

Publishing history

Notes

  1. ↑ Herbert Hoover's Depression, - Excerpted from chapter 7 - LewRockwell.com
  2. ↑ "Rothbard Revises the History of the Great Depression"

External links