ABSTRACT
In the 1930s, around 40% and in some years nearly 50% of all economics articles, and well over 30% of all articles in economics journals, contained the term 'depression', which appeared much more frequently then than during any other historical episode. Following the 2007–08 financial and economic crisis, even casual observers of economics could have gained the impression that many more authors than before suddenly referred to John Maynard Keynes's writings, particularly the General Theory. A similar context is apparent when going back in time to the General Theory's original publication. It is evident that this original work itself was written against the very background of severe economic crisis and depression. Based on a descriptive analysis directly comparing absolute frequencies inside and outside of contraction years, Besomi corroborates the "panics produce texts" hypothesis. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
