Routes Into the Abyss Coping with Crises in the 1930s [Hardcover]

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 Konradhas 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.

Introduction
Helmut Konrad and Wolfgang Maderthaner

Chapter 1.Crisis and Workers Movements
Ferdinand Lacina

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

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

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

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

Chapter 6.The Second Spanish Republic: The Challenges Facing a Democracy in Troubled Times
Vicent Sanz Rozal?n

Chapter 7.The Crisis in the 1930?s and the Rise to Power l£Š