ABSTRACT
Kindle Berger's thesis came under fire in 1992, when economist Barry Eichengreen publishes Golden Fetters: the gold standard and the great depression, 1919-1939. World War II, regarded as the logical culmination of efforts by all of the industrial powers to address the great depression in isolation from one another. In some ways this supports the argument of Charles Kindleberger, whose book 'The World in Depression', 1929-1939 attributed the length and severity of the crisis to the failure of the leading nations to develop a cooperative program for recovery. Kindleberger singled out for particular criticism the United States, the countries economic power. The economic crisis of 2008 has certainly fostered among Americans, a desire to withdraw from overseas commitments, as seen in moves by President Barack Obama to bring an end to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the overwhelming public sentiment against even limited intervention in the civil war in Syria.
