Depression, War, and Cold War

Name: Depression, War, and Cold War
Author: https://www.simonandschuster.net/authors/Robert-Higgs/237248903
ISBN: 9781598134216

Challenging the Myths of Conflict and Prosperity

Part of The Essential Robert Higgs

By Robert Higgs

LIST PRICE $21.95

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About The Book

Offering a powerful interpretation of U.S. political economy from the early-1930s to the end of the Cold War, Higgs refutes many popular myths about the Great Depression and New Deal, the World War II economy, and the postwar national-security state that is still so pervasive today.

In Depression, War, and Cold War, the scholarly sequel to his acclaimed classic Crisis and Leviathan, Robert Higgs sheds pioneering light on some of the most important of these questions: What accounts for the extraordinary duration of the Great Depression? What about “wartime prosperity” and whether World War II “got the economy out of the depression”? How did the war alter relations between the government and the leaders of big business? How did the postwar military economy alter the business cycle? What is Congress’s role in the military-industrial-congressional complex? This seminal book answers these and other crucial questions by presenting new insights, evidence, and statistical analyses.

Depression, War, and Cold War offers a powerful, solidly grounded interpretation of U.S. political economy from the early-1930s to the end of the Cold War, and refutes many popular ideas about the Great Depression and New Deal, the World War II economy, and the postwar national-security state still so pervasive today.

About The Author

Robert Higgs

Robert Higgs is Retired Senior Fellow in Political Economy, Founding Editor and former Editor at Large of the Independent Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation. His many books include Crisis and Leviathan; Depression, War, and Cold War; After Leviathan; Delusions of Power; Neither Liberty Nor Safety; Resurgence of the Warfare State; Taking a Stand; and multiple edited collections.

Product Details

Publisher: Independent Institute (October 7, 2025)
Length: 316 pages
ISBN13: 9781598134216

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Raves and Reviews

"Robert Higgs is a contrarian and an iconoclast. He believes that economists and historians have misunderstood U.S. economic history during the middle decades of the 20th century."

– American Journal of Sociology

"Thoughtful and detailed criticism."

– Hugh T. Rockoff, professor of economics, Rutgers University

"Necessary correctives to the popular and scholarly willingness to remain emotionally invested in erroneous explanations."

– Journal of American Studies

"An important book. Those interested in the interaction between the domestic economy, war, and heavily armed peace will find it essential reading."

– Paul Johnson, author of

"A real eye opener and bold foray into contemporary political economy."

– Richard E. Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, New York University

"Key challenges to both the macromonetary and Keynesian explanations of the American experience in the era of depression and world war."

– Journal of Markets & Morality