Author Description

'The First World War unquestionably repre- sents an important climacteric in economic history. However, the significance of that climacteric is variously interpreted. Essen- tially there are four themes, whose order of priority depends on the observer's view- point: the decay of the 'classical' capitalist world economy based on Great Britain and the gold standard; the progress of in- dustrialisation overseas brought about by the temporary economic paralysis of Europe; the long-term effect of structural changes in the economies of the warring industrial countries, more especially the merging of the economy and the apparatus of state; finally, the development of the international labour movement from its nadir in August 1914 to its triumphant culmination of the Russian October Revo- lution. I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to do justice to these various aspects and to place them in a common context which might be described as the "crisis of the capitalist world economy"