Abstract

The interwar era from 1919–1939 was a twenty year peace that separated the hostilities of the First and Second World Wars (discussed in Eloranta's and Higgs's chapters, respectively). The period was marked by the prosperity of the 1920s (discussed in Olney's chapter) together with the long recovery period from 1933–1939 (discussed in Fishback's and Ohanian's chapters). In between the roaring twenties and the post-1933 recovery the world economy collapsed. Figure 13.1 shows the time path of U.S. industrial production from 1919: 1–1939: 12.