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This new edition of Ivan Berend's leading overview of economic regimes and economic performance from the start of the twentieth century to the present is fully updated to incorporate recent events, including the causes and impacts of the 2008 financial-economic crisis. Praised for its clear prose and uncluttered analytical style as well as its use of illustrative case studies, this is an integrated, comparative account of European economic development from the evolution of capitalism to the fascist and communist regimes and their collapse, and Europe's current economic problems. The book examines both successes and failures in responding to the challenges of this crisis-ridden but highly-successful age. It introduces the main factors behind economic growth and the various economic regimes that were invented and trialled. It shows how the vast disparity which had existed between the European regions started gradually decreasing as a result of increased integration.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. Europe's laissez-faire system and its impact before World War I; 2. Decline of laissez-faire and the rise of the regulated market system; 3. Economic dirigisme in authoritarian-fascist regimes; 4. The centrally planned economic system; 5. Managed social-market system in an integrating post-World War II Western Europe; 6. Globalization: return to laissez-faire?; Bibliography; Index.
About the author
Professor Ivan T. Berend is the author of more than thirty books, many of which have been translated and published all over the world. His first edition of An Economic History of Europe was published in thirteen countries. Berend's life experience has helped him to understand twentieth-century European history. He was born and lived under the authoritarian Horthy regime in Hungary, survived the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau and experienced the communist regime in post-war Hungary, as well as working on its reform and regime change. He also chaired the committee that worked out the first privatization and marketization plan for Hungary in 1989. He has 66 years teaching experience in Hungary, Britain and the United States and was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, the Academia Europea, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, as well as being an honorary doctor of Glasgow University, St John's University (USA), and Janus Pannonius University (Hungary). In 2005, Berend received the Gold Medal of the German Suedosteuropa Gesellshaft for life-time achievement in research on Southeast Europe.
Summary
A revised and fully-updated new edition of this leading survey of the twentieth-century European economy. Ivan T. Berend provides an integrated, comparative account of European economic development from the evolution of capitalism to the fascist and communist regimes and their collapse, and the causes and impacts of the 2008 financial crisis.
