ABSTRACT
This chapter covers momentous times in the mid-twentieth century. The global economy grew phenomenally; more than sevenfold in real terms between 1913 to 1979 (Maddison 2003). It swung violently from the roaring twenties, to the Great Depression and war, to the long post-war boom into another severe crisis in the 1970s. Rather than attempt a comprehensive survey, the chapter develops the book’s methodological point that history can be informed by, but is not reducible to, more abstract theoretical analysis. History should not be read as just one damn thing after another; a short-sighted Versailles Treaty here and an oil shock there leading to problems, some benign US hegemony occasioning peace and prosperity. Nor can it be understood simply through generalized imperatives to accumulate or the assertion of relentless crisis tendencies. The chapter emphasizes that accumulation took different forms with changing implications; in terms of class relations, spatial organization, state policies and international relations. New directions were the result of contested social processes but these too can be understood as conditioned and limited by the character of accumulation and crisis. Concentrating on leading capitalist economies, the four sections are organized chronologically, broadly following the boom, crisis, boom, crisis periodization. This history also provides the background to the subsequent period of liberalization and financialization discussed in the next chapter.
