The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924 [Paperback]

Gerald D. Feldman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195101146 | ISBN-13: 978-0195101140 | Publication Date: March 6, 1997

This book presents a comprehensive study of the most famous and spectacular instance of inflation in modern industrial society--that in Germany during and following World War I. A broad, probing narrative, this book studies inflation as a strategy of social pacification and economic reconstruction and as a mechanism for escaping domestic and international indebtedness. The Great Disorder is a study of German society under the tension of inflation and hyperinflation, and it explores the ways in which Germany's hyperinflation and stabilization were linked to the Great Depression and the rise of National Socialism. This wide-ranging study sets German inflation within the broader issues of maintaining economic stability, social peace, and democracy and thus contributes to the general history of the twentieth century and has important implications for existing and emerging market economies facing the temptation or reality of inflation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the fate of democratic institutions in Weimar Germany and other countries operating in the twentieth-century context of war and economic catastrophe."--American Historical Review

"Mandatory reading for social scientists of all kinds, and not only monetarists and historians dealing with twentieth-century Germany."--Journal of Economic Literature

"Feldman's history of the German inflation is impressive both for the breadth of its vision and the texture of its detail....[The book] will become essential reading for anyone who truly wishes to understand what happened to Germany in the first third of the Twentieth century.--Journal of Military History

"Gerald D. Feldman's history of the great inflation in Germany adds up to one of the most comprehensive investigations of an advanced industrial society....With the realist novelist's eye for illustrative detail and consequential themes, Gerald Feldman has produced a sweeping history of Germany in the age of inflation."--The Historian

About the Author

Gerald D. Feldman is at University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1040 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195101146
• ISBN-13: 978-0195101140
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.7 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book to lose yourself in, October 8, 2000

By 

Dan Lobnitz - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924 (Paperback)

This is great, hard-core history.

While this book probably won't appeal to the average run-of-the-mill history buff, it will attract anyone who wants to lose himself in a vary narrow, hyper-specialized area of history.

In many ways the economic disaster of Germany between 1914-1924 reworked the foundation of modern finance. For the first time in western history a political system was literally straightjacketed into salvaging an impossible economic situation. This book goes into exhaustive detail contrasting the unenlightened economic policies of the Allies to the increasingly discouraged Germans who desperately wanted to bring order to their lives.

Feldman does a great job helping the reader tune into the magnitude of the hopelessness that the German people felt regarding the impossibility of satisfying unpayable reparations. This is a crisp retelling of a people who did not have, and indeed were prevented from having the economic infrastructure to participate in a functional modern economy.

By the time Feldman is done telling you the story of Germany's incomprehensible inflation, you'll feel an intimacy with this subject. This book is indispensable for understanding the origins of the seething anger, frustration and hostility that the Nazi's were able to so successfully tap into and manipulate.

Finally, I should note that this book is itself something of an ordeal to read; it took me well over two years to read this 4 pound monster. But I have to say I enjoyed every hour I spent with it...