The Global Impact of the Great Depression 1929-1939 moves beyond traditional analyses of the Depression by looking at its economic impact on the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The causes of the Great Depression are examined before Rothermund focuses on the Depression’s impact on developing countries as well as its political consequences. He explains the related economic theories very clearly. The book examines the origin of the Depression in America and its transmission to Europe as well as its impact in Turkey, Egypt, Australia and the developing world. This piece introduces The Global Impact of the Great Depression 1929-1939 gives and overview of its contents. Beginning with a discussion of the challenges that the depression presents to economics theory, it touches on Keynes and the theory of economic disequilibrium and neo-mercantilism. The countries of the depressed world are divided into three categories: those who moved with the British pound (including Portugal, Scandinavia, and the British colonies), those who looked to the US dollar (mostly Latin American countries), and those who tried to maintain their link with the gold standard (Japan, for example). The consequences of belonging to a particular category are discussed. The severe impact that the depression had on the peripheral peasantry, an impact which has been largely ignored in analyses of the depression, is examined. Globally, Rothermund states, the industrial centers of the world shifted the burden of the depression to peripheral countries and within those countries, the rural areas suffered more than the urban. Several case studies are linked to the idea that a web of credit existed and connected the world’s financial centers with rural money lenders and thereby indebted peasants at the periphery of the world.
