Peace In Their Time

The mini-tour of Central Europe ends this week, and I take a look at Czechoslovakia and Poland. Nations that shared no small number of problems, and each in their own way failed to address them. For Czechoslovakia it was being unable to get their German minority to stop making eyes across the border, and for Poland it was being unable to stabilize their government enough to even begin making accom...

Romania was a nation better situated than most by 1929. It hadn't suffered from devastating civil conflict, there had been no political collapse, and its frontiers were reflective of the dreams of every nationalist. And of course, there's a significant "but" to that statement. Corruption was rife, the people didn't really benefit much from the swank new borders, and a local brand of fascism was on...

The rise of fascism in Hungary proceeded in fits and starts during the 30s, primarily due to there not being a formidable Left in the country's politics to rage against. But the Depression hit the country severely enough that the establishment was badly discredited, and the men who had crushed the Left in 1919 and the early 20s were still around to sink their hooks into the state. On top of that,...

Because of Austria's central position in Europe and close ties to Germany, its importance was all out of proportion to its size. Which is why the rise of fascism during the Depression is so important to the course of later events. The country found itself between proponents of pan-Germanism and those who favored an independent course, both of which had their own authoritarian visions. And each cam...

The damage caused by the Great Depression was not confined to the big economies of the world, and today I'll take a look at the instability and civil conflict that resulted from it in a trio of Central European nations. That's right, it's back to the future battlegrounds of Europe and the smaller states caught between the giants.    Bibliography for this episode:  Berend, Ivan Decades of Crisis: C...

The quest for absolute power in Italy was always one on Mussolini's mind, but the Depression forced the Fascists into overdrive. With the economy falling apart, the state swooped in to both clumsily rescue the situation, as well as expanding its hold over the economy. And the crisis in general started opening up very big possibilities for expansion that had otherwise been denied in the 20s.    Bib...

For France, the Great Depression came late, but also refused to go away. On account of being one of the few winners of the Gold Standard, France's economy was booming so much by 1929 that it took until 1932 for the downturn to take effect. But when it did, it proved intractable, critically undermining the legitimacy of the shaky Third Republic.    Bibliography for this episode:  Adamthwaite, Antho...

Today we begin our Depression European tour and take a look at the UK. That nation had already been suffering a prolonged recession through most of the 20s, so the Great Depression only added to the nation's woes. While the politics of the nation wouldn't go haywire like they would elsewhere, it did doom the Labour-Liberal coalition that held power in late 1929, and created the conditions for a de...

The year 1932 was a special low point of the Great Depression in the US not just because of the material devastation for people, but also because how little was done to address the crisis. The Hoover administration revealed how incapable the traditional Conservative orthodoxy was at repairing the nation, and the year became a grim waiting game for FDR and the resurgent Democrats to takeover.    Bi...

At first it looked like the Great Depression would be just another run of the mill recession. But the bubble that was the US economy popped right at the same time much of Europe was entering a general fiscal crisis, which in turn undermined the Gold Standard system most nations were a part of. The imbalances created by the Gold Standard proved unsustainable, and its collapse led to a free for all...

Season 2 kicks off here with an introduction to the early days of the Great Depression! Fun! Nothing did more to undermine to world order fitfully constructed during the 1920s like this mother of all economic disasters. And what really made this crisis of Capital so severe was the financial sector's implosion in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929. Suddenly, the very thing that underpi...

It's the end of Season 1 and I take stock of what's been covered up to this point, big trends, takeaways, that sort of thing. See you in three months!    Bibliography for this episode:    Please see the previous 121 episodes.    Questions? Comments? Email me at  peaceintheirtime@gmail.com

Today the United States miniseries goes out with the bang of the 1929 stock market crash. It was a confluence of bad decisions, inaction, greed, and terrible timing all coming together to create the great economic crisis of our times.    Bibliography for this episode:    Galbraith, James K. The Great Crash 1929 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company 2009 Hall, Thomas E. and J. David Ferguson...

The 1920s became a legendary time in America as the consumer economy took center stage, and a dizzying array of goods heralded a new era in how people lived their lives. What was less legendary about the era was the dependence of consumers on credit, and the short-sightedness of the country's elites.    Bibliography for this episode:    Miller, Nathan New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of...

Despite winning WWI and showing off its power to the rest of the world, the United States limped into 1920. Exhausted by a year of violence at home, a crippling recession, and runaway inflation, voter turned to the Republicans. And Republicans turned to a man that would symbolize the modest aspirations of the age, Warren G. Harding. Despite not lasting long, he'd set the tone for the rest of the d...

The immediate aftermath of WWI would unleash one of the most harrowing years in America's history. The economic recession that immediately followed the end of the war helped spark violence and persecutions that rocked the country into 1920.    Bibliography for this episode:    McWhirter, Cameron Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America St. Martin's Press 2011 Krugler, Davi...

By 1914 the United States was rich and confident, but also wise enough to stay out of WWI. The problem is though fights of that size have a tendency to drag nations into them, and America found itself involved after numerous German missteps. It would be a new situation for the country, as President Wilson assumed effective political leadership of the Entente, setting a vision for the post-war that...

It's overview time once again and today I introduce the United States. It's main contribution to the failures of peace in the interwar period stem from its refusal to get entangled in European affairs. Which was a reluctance that had to do with internal conditions within the nation, and will be the focus of the first part of this series.    Bibliography for this episode:    LaFeber, Walter The Cam...

The horrors of modern war shocked sensibilities enough that by the 1920s there were active efforts to outlaw war entirely. The idea's proponents would face obstacles from disinterested governments and even conflicts among each other. But by decade's end the world had come together in agreement with their principals.    Bibliography for this episode:    Hathaway, Oona A. and Scott J. Shapiro The In...

In contrast to the Genoa Conference failing because it tried to do too much, the Locarno Treaties had much more success due to keeping its ambitions manageable. And those ambitions were to guarantee peace in Western Europe, as opposed to the world. Still, diplomacy being what it was in the 20s, there was still plenty keeping the Great Powers from achieving something that could last.    Bibliograph...

Bringing the focus back to European affairs, there was a lot of unfinished business left after the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. And that business seemed intractable, leading the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to call a new conference to solve all the continent's woes. Its failure would signal the end of overblown meetings on the Paris model, as well as set the stage for the Ruhr crisis...

A big point of contention during the 1920s was disarmament. The world public didn't want a repeat of WWI, and maintaining huge militaries was seen as a wasteful expense in times of economic crisis. And for once, the Great Powers of the world did something about it, meeting in Washington, DC to hash out an agreement to scale back navy sizes.    Bibliography for this episode:    Goldstein, Erik The...

Today we start covering the broader international initiatives that attempted to consolidate the Versailles system after WWI. The one that carried the most promise in the imagination of the world's public, if not the world's leaders, was the League of Nations. A precursor to the United Nations, it would try what had never been done before: Create an independent international body that would mediate...

Today is our conclusion to this season's miniseries on the Soviet Union. The final years of the 20s saw the USSR slip into paranoia over fears of foreign invasion and subversion at home. It would be the perfect conditions for Stalin to move against his enemies in the Communist leadership, which is to say everyone that didn't swear blind loyalty to him.   Bibliography for this episode:    Kotkin, S...

We've finally reached the last episodes of the Soviet Union during the 1920s. It was a decade of possibility, but the rise of Stalin to undisputed power meant the era wouldn't last forever. His consolidation of power was a years-long process, and would play out over countless congresses and backroom maneuverings.    Bibliography for this episode:    Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Paradoxes of Power 1878-...