Routes Into the Abyss: Coping with Crises in the 1930s (International Studies in Social History, 21)

Examining the 1930s and the different reactions to the crisis, this volume offers a global comparative perspective that includes a comparison across time to give insight into the contemporary global recession. Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain with their antidemocratic, authoritarian or fascistic answers to the economic crisis are compared not only to an opposite European perspective - the Swedish example - but also to other global perspectives and their political consequences in Japan, China, India, Turkey, Brazil and the United States. The book offers no recipe for economic, social or political action in today's recession, but it shows a wide range of reactions in the past, some of which led to catastrophe. Helmut Konrad has been Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Graz since 1984. Wolfgang Maderthaner has been the scientific and administrative director of the Austrian Labour History Society since 1983 and was appointed General Director of the Austrian National Archives in April 2012. Publisher's note