Clash of Extremes takes on the reigning orthodoxy that the American Civil War was waged over high moral principles. Marc Egnal contends that economics, more than any other factor, moved the country to war in 1861. Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, Egnal shows that between 1820 and 1850, patterns of trade and production drew the North and South together and allowed sectional leaders to broker a series of compromises. After midcentury, however, all that changed as the rise of the Great Lakes economy reoriented Northern trade along east-west lines. Meanwhile, in the South, soil exhaustion, concerns about the country's westward expansion, and growing ties between the Upper South and the free states led many cotton planters to contemplate secession. The war that ensued was truly a "clash of extremes." Sweeping from the 1820s through Reconstruction and filled with colorful portraits of leading individuals, Clash of Extremes emphasizes economics while giving careful consideration to social conflicts, ideology, and the rise of the antislavery movement. The result is a bold reinterpretation that will challenge the way we think about the Civil War.
Bad things occur and persist because of the presence of powerful beneficiaries. In this provocative and illuminating book, Imad Moosa illustrates the economic motivations behind the last 100 years of international conflict, citing the numerous powerful individual and corporate war profiteers that benefit from war.
This unique volume offers a definitive new history of European economies at war from 1914 to 1918. It studies how European economies mobilised for war, how existing economic institutions stood up under the strain, how economic development influenced outcomes and how wartime experience influenced post-war economic growth. Leading international experts provide the first systematic comparison of economies at war between 1914 and 1918 based on the best available data for Britain, Germany, France, Russia, the USA, Italy, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands. The editors' overview draws some stark lessons about the role of economic development, the importance of markets and the damage done by nationalism and protectionism. A companion volume to the acclaimed The Economics of World War II, this is a major contribution to our understanding of total war.
The peace that passeth understanding -- Paradise is a bazaar -- Dreams and delusions of a coming war -- While waterbirds fight -- Death-watch and scapegoat wars -- War chests and pulse beats -- A calendar of war -- The abacus of power -- War as an accident -- Aims and arms -- A day that lives in infamy -- Vendetta of the Black Sea -- Long wars -- And shorter wars -- The mystery of wide wars -- Australia's Pacific war -- Myths of the nuclear era -- War, peace and neutrality.
This Handbook brings together contributions from leading scholars who take an economic perspective to study peace and conflict. Some chapters are largely empirical, exploring the correlates and quantifying the costs of conflict. Others are more theoretical, examining the mechanisms that lead to war or are more conducive to peace.
As insurgencies rage, a burning question remains: how should insurgents fight technologically superior state armies? Commentators rarely ask this question because the catchphrase 'we fight by the rules, but they don't' is nearly axiomatic. But truly, are all forms of guerrilla warfare equally reprehensible? Can we think cogently about just guerrilla warfare? May guerrilla tactics such as laying improvised explosive devices (IEDs), assassinating informers, using human shields, seizing prisoners of war, conducting cyber strikes against civilians, manipulating the media, looting resources, or using nonviolence to provoke violence prove acceptable under the changing norms of contemporary warfare? The short answer is 'yes', but modern guerrilla warfare requires a great deal of qualification, explanation, and argumentation before it joins the repertoire of acceptable military behavior. Not all insurgents fight justly, but guerrilla tactics and strategies are also not always the heinous practices that state powers often portray them to be.
Lionel Robbins (1898–1984) is most famous for his leading role in shaping the London School of Economics in the interwar years, and also for his remarkable body of scholarship. The reader will see why when reading through this wonderful collection of articles published in 1939. It is newly published through Laissez Faire for the first time since those days. Normal.dotm 0 0 1 324 1851 Marcus Editorial 15 3 2273 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Robbins was writing at the end of a terrible decade of depression and upheaval, and just before the war-planning state came to be the central planner of the world’s economies from 1940 onward. We discover him here in the last period of his status as a leading defender of free markets. He is directing his arguments not only Keynes and not only against socialists but also against the defenders of capitalistic monopoly and the redistributionist state. His arguments are fresh and passionate — a model of consistency and clarity on topic after topic. The opening essay is a great example. In "The Economic Basis of Class Conflict," Robbins reasserts the classical-liberal wisdom that, in a free society, there are no natural conflicts between groups — and certainly none that need to be remedied through state intervention. Rather, conflicts occur between individuals, and these are not intractable but managed best through the rule of law. Any state measures to fix such conflicts engender more conflict and create damages on both the taxed party and the group that is the target of the benefit. Robbins specifically mentions how fake conflicts between classes, races, and sexes end up tearing society apart. This whole essay, then, becomes a response not just to Marxism but to the entire anti-liberal tendencies of modern statecraft. As the book proceeds, we find defenses of market freedom in the areas of trade, competition, price controls, countercyclical policy, and even patents. On patents in particular, Robbins has some wonderful analysis that anticipates all the modern criticisms of policies that grant industrial monopolies and slow down growth. It’s almost unbelievable that he could have been so prescient in 1939, long before patents became a source of stagnation in so many industries from pharmaceuticals to software. Lord Robbins is our teacher now and forever. To search for titles from Laissez Faire Books, enter a keyword and LFB; e.g., Economics LFB
John Maynard Keynes, then a rising young economist, participated in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 as chief representative of the British Treasury and advisor to Prime Minister David Lloyd George. He resigned after desperately trying and failing to reduce the huge demands for reparations being made on Germany. The Economic Consequences of the Peace is Keynes' brilliant and prophetic analysis of the effects that the peace treaty would have both on Germany and, even more fatefully, the world.
