America’s economic way of war : war and the US economy from the Spanish–American War to the Persian Gulf War

✍ Scribed by Hugh Rockoff

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 372
• Series: New approaches to economic and social history
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

How did economic and financial factors determine how America waged war in the twentieth century? This important new book exposes the influence of economics and finance on the questions of whether the nation should go to war, how wars would be fought, how resources would be mobilized, and the long-term consequences for the American economy. Ranging from the Spanish-American War to the Gulf War, Hugh Rockoff explores the ways in which war can provide unique opportunities for understanding the basic principles of economics as wars produce immense changes in monetary and fiscal policy and so provide a wealth of information about how these policies actually work. He shows that wars have been more costly to the United States than most Americans realize as a substantial reliance on borrowing from the public, money creation and other strategies to finance America's war efforts have hidden the true cost of war.

• Reveals how America's current wars are financed and how the current financial system reflects the outcomes of past wars
• Shows how the extremes of war can illuminate the basic principles of economics
• As the first book to provide an economic and financial history of America's twentieth-century wars, it will help students, journalists, business people and academics place America's recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya into historical perspective

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
......Page 1
America’s Economic Way of War......Page 3
Series......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents
......Page 7
Figures
......Page 8
Boxes
......Page 10
Tables
......Page 11
Chronologies
......Page 13
Acknowledgements
......Page 14
1: A century of war......Page 15
Were America's wars fought for economic reasons?......Page 16
How did America finance its wars?......Page 18
Did wars stimulate the economy?......Page 20
Does economics have anything useful to say about wars?......Page 21
Did wars alter the financial system?......Page 24
Does America reward its veterans generously?......Page 25
2: The economics of war......Page 27
The economic causes of America's wars......Page 28
Financing wars......Page 30
The draft and other veiled means of financing wars......Page 38
Mobilizing resources......Page 41
The costs of wars......Page 45
The economic legacies of wars......Page 53
The economics of veterans' benefits......Page 54
America's nineteenth-century and colonial wars......Page 56
3: The Spanish–American War......Page 62
The origins of the war......Page 64
Financing the war......Page 71
Mobilization......Page 76
The cost of the war......Page 78
The impact on the economy......Page 79
4: The Philippine–American War......Page 84
The origins of the American conquest of the Philippines......Page 87
The course of the war......Page 89
The cost of the war......Page 97
The costs of a "large policy"......Page 100
Imperialism and trade......Page 103
The veterans of the Spanish–American and Philippine– American wars......Page 109
5: World War I......Page 113
The origins of the war and American involvement......Page 116
Financing the war......Page 125
Mobilization......Page 139
The cost of the war......Page 150
The Treaty of Versailles......Page 154
The international gold standard......Page 159
The veterans......Page 165
6: World War II......Page 169
The origins of the war......Page 174
Financing the war......Page 176
Wage, price, and production controls......Page 188
Mobilization......Page 194
The gold rush of 1942......Page 205
The course of the war......Page 207
The war in the Pacific......Page 210
The economics of strategic bombing......Page 213
The atomic bomb......Page 225
The cost of the war......Page 229
The legacies of World War II......Page 233
A
new international economic order......Page 234
The role of women in the economy......Page 239
Synthetic rubber......Page 243
The veterans......Page 251
7: The Korean War......Page 256
The origins of the war......Page 259
Fiscal policy......Page 260
Monetary policy......Page 263
Price controls......Page 266
The cost of the war......Page 268
The veterans......Page 270
8: The Cold War......Page 274
The origins of the Cold War......Page 279
The cost of the Cold War......Page 286
9: The Vietnam War......Page 290
The origins of the war......Page 294
Fiscal policy......Page 298
Monetary policy......Page 303
Price and wage policy......Page 305
The cost of the war......Page 308
The balance of payments and the end of Bretton Woods......Page 310
The all-volunteer army......Page 315
10: The Persian Gulf War......Page 319
The origins of the war......Page 320
Financing the war......Page 323
The course of the war......Page 324
The cost of the war......Page 326
The veterans......Page 327
11 The American economic way of war......Page 330
Appendix 1 Personnel serving, by war
......Page 336
Appendix 2 Deaths and non-mortal wounds, by war
......Page 337
Appendix 3 The financial costs of US wars in the twentieth century
......Page 340
Appendix 4 Sources of federal tax revenues in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War
......Page 342
References
......Page 344
Index
......Page 366