Additional information
by Douglas Steeples (Author), David O. Whitten (Author)
The Panic of 1893 and the depression it triggered mark one of the decisive crises in American history. Devastating broad sections of the country like a tidal wave, the depression forced the nation to change its way of life and altered the pattern and pace of national development ever after. The depression served as the setting for the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society, exposed grave economic and social problems, sharply tested the country's resourcefulness, reshaped popular thought, and changed the direction of foreign policy. It was a crucible in which the elements of the modern United States were clarified and refined. Yet no study to date has examined the depression in its entirety. This is the first book to treat these disparate matters in detail, and to trace and interpret the business contraction of the 1890s in the context of national economic, political, and social development.
Steeples and Whitten first explain the origins of the depression, measure its course, and interpret the business recovery, giving full coverage to structural changes in the economy; namely, the growing importance of manufacturing, emergence of new industries, consolidation of business, and increasing importance of finance capitalism. The remainder of the book examines the depression's impact on society--discussing, for example, unemployment, birth rate, health, and education--and on American culture, politics and international relations. Placing the business collapse at the center of the scene, the book shows how the depression was a catalyst for ushering in a more modern America.Author Biography
DOUGLAS STEEPLES is Dean, College of Liberal Arts, and Professor of History at Mercer University. He is the author of numerous articles, he editor of several books including, most recently, Managing Change in Higher Education (1990) and associate editor of Business Library Review. He is also president of the Economic and Business Historical Society for 1998-99.
DAVID O. WHITTEN is Professor of Economics at Auburn University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Extractives, Manufacturing, and Services: A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Greenwood, 1997), and editor of Business Library Review.
