Examining the 1930s and the different reactions to the crisis, this volume offers a global comparative perspective that includes a comparison across time to give insight into the contemporary global recession. Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain with their antidemocratic, authoritarian or fascistic answers to the economic crisis are compared not only to an opposite European perspective the Swedish example but also to other global perspectives and their political consequences in Japan, China, India, Turkey, Brazil and the United States. The book offers no recipe for economic, social or political action in todays recession, but it shows a wide range of reactions in the past, some of which led to catastrophe.

Helmut Konrad has been Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Graz since 1984. He has held visiting fellowships at Cornell University, University of Waterloo, European University Institute Firenze and Yale University. His research focuses on labour history and cultural history.

IntroductionHelmut Konrad and Wolfgang Maderthaner

Chapter 1.Crisis and Workers MovementsFerdinand Lacina

Chapter 2.The Significance of February, 1934 in Austria in both National and International ContextHelmut Konrad

Chapter 3.Avalanches of Spring: The Great War, Modernism, and the Rise of Austro-fascismRoger Griffin

Chapter 4.Der italienische Faschismus im Spannungsfeld zwischen Reaktion und ModerneKarin Priester

Chapter 5. Hitlers Dictatorship: His Role as Leader in the Nazi RegimeHans Mommsen

Chapter 6. The Second Spanish Republic: The Challenges Facing a Democracy in Troubled TimesVicent Sanz Rozalén

Chapter 7. The Crisis in the 1930s and the Rise to Power of the Swedish Social DemocratsBengt Schüllerqvist

Chapter 8.The United States in the Great Depression: Was the Fascist Door Open?Nelson Lichtenstein

Chapter 9. Turkey in the first World Crisis: From Authoritarianism to TotalitarianismErik-Jan Zürcher

Chapter 10.Brazil in the 1930s: State Building, Nationalism and Working-Class AgencyAlexandre Fortes and Paulo Fontes

Chapter 11.Labour, Organisation and Gender: The Jute Industry in India in the 1930sSamita Sen

Chapter 12.Japans Way Out of the Crisis of the 1930s as a Strategy for Overcoming ModernityHiroko Mizuno

Chapter 13.Reappraising the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937): Modernizing China during the World Economic CrisisZhu, Weigelin-Schwiedrzik

List of Contributors Bibliography Index