Political Economy and International Order in Interwar Europe by Alexandre M Cunha

Political Economy and International Order in Interwar Europe by Alexandre M Cunha

Standard histories of European integration emphasize the immediate aftermath of World War II as the moment when the seeds of the European Union were first sown. However, the interwar years witnessed a flurry of concern with the reconstruction of the world order, generating arguments that cut across the different social sciences, then plunged in a period of disciplinary soul-searching and feverish activism. Economics was no exception: several of the most prominent interwar economists, such as F. A. Hayek, Jan Tinbergen, Lionel Robbins, François Perroux, J. M. Keynes and Robert Triffin, contributed directly to larger public discussions on peace, order and stability.

This edited volume combines these different strands of historical narrative into a unified framework, showing how political economy was integral to the interwar literature on international relations and, conversely, how economists were eager to incorporate international politics into their own concerns. The book brings together a group of scholars with varied disciplinary backgrounds, whose combined perspectives allow us to explore three analytical layers. The first part studies how different forms of economic knowledge, from economic programming to international finance, were used in the quest for a stable European order. The second part focuses on the existence of conflicting expectations about the role of social scientific knowledge, either as a source of technical solutions or as an input for enlightened public discussion. The third part illustrates how certain ideas and beliefs found concrete expression in specific institutional settings, which amplified their political leverage. The three parts are enclosed by an introductory essay, laying out the broad topics explored in the volume, and a substantial postscript tying all the historical threads together.

“This book brings interesting perspectives on the interwar period, showing also the link with the process of European integration in the postwar period” (Ivo Maes and Robert Triffin Chair, History of Political Economy, Vol. 55 (2), April, 2023)

Luca Fiorito received his PhD in economics from the New School for Social Research in New York and is currently Professor at the University of Palermo. His main area of interest is the history of American economic thought in the Progressive Era and the interwar years. He has published many works on the contributions of the institutionalists and on the relationship between economics and eugenics.
Scott Scheall is Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Social Science in Arizona State University's College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, as well as Project Director for the History of Economic Thought in Arizona State Universitys Center for the Study of Economic Liberty. He has published extensively on topics related to the history and philosophy of the Austrian School of economics. Scott is the author of F. A. Hayek and the Epistemology of Politics: The Curious Task of Economics (Routledge, 2020).
Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak is Associate Professor of Economics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. He specializes in the history and methodology of economics, studying the interplay of social, political, and economic ideas in early modern England, and the institutionalization of economics in Brazil during the postwar era. He has published several papers on these and related themes in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, and is also the co-editor of The Political Economy of Latin American Independence (Routledge, 2017).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9783030471040
ISBN 10	3030471047
Title	Political Economy and International Order in Interwar Europe
Author	Alexandre M Cunha
Series	Palgrave Studies In The History Of Economic Thought
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Year published	2021-10-27
Number of pages	434
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.