The Routledge Economic History of War presents a broad overview of the latest research on the long‑lasting changes and effects that collapsing security in international relations has had on the world’s economies and societies.
Arranged around five key themes – Fiscal and Military Capacity, Military Spending, Economic Effects of War, War and Institutions, and Business and War – this handbook features contributions from an international range of scholars, on varying methodological approaches, theories, and geographical arenas. Encompassing a range of disciplinary approaches, the main focus is on how economic history can provide insights into the societal impact of war, addressing issues such as how war preparations and arms races affect government spending, the direct economic effects of war, and how societies adjust to the economic realities of rearmament and recovery. This volume also explores whether wars change or alter institutions such as governments, religion, and democracy. It also looks at what lessons we can learn from the past about military spending, state capacity, and the effects of war on both individual societies and global cooperation.
Ultimately, this book provides a broad overview of the methodological, geographical, and multidisciplinary range of the economic history of war and demonstrates how war, economics, institutions, and society are inextricably linked throughout history.
Introduction: Why Study the Economic History of War? Part I: Fiscal, Military, and Monetary Capacity. 1. War and Finance in the Early Modern Era: A Eurasian Overview 2. Successes and Failures of Iberian Fiscal-Military States in the Long Run, c. 1640-1820 3. Early Modern Trade and Naval Competition – England and Scandinavia from Westphalia to Vienna 4. Colonial Armies and the World Wars 5.Financing America’s Wars: Theory, Practice, and Lessons Part II: Wars and Institution 6.Mobilizing Resources for War by Economic Expansion: Contrasting Economic Visions 7.Marriage between Warfare and Religion? State Capacity and the Church in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe 8.War Inflation and Taxation 9. League of Nations and Interwar Security Framework Part III: Economic Warfare 10. Economic Warfare: Lessons from Two World Wars 11.How the First World War Globalized Economic Warfare 12.Dreams of Empire: War, Economics, and Imperialism in the Twentieth Century 13. The China Campaign Committee in Britain: Boycotts and the Effort to Help the Chinese Population, 1938-45 Part IV: Business and War 14. Commerce during Conflict: Business and War in the Early Modern Period 15. Contractors to Companies, Inventors to Industries: The Rise of Private Armaments Manufacturing, 1815-1914 16. Planning Mass Production of Merchant Ships in Japan during the Pacific War 17. Propaganda as Defense: The Origins and Development of a War Information Service 18. Debunking the Myth: War Does not Necessarily Mean Business Success Part V: Economic Effects of War 19.Economic Mobilization and Command Economies in Germany and Russia during the First World War 20.The Human Capital of American Service Personnel In and After War 21. Wars and the Labor Market Outcomes of Minorities in the U.S. 22. Conflict and Inequality: A Survey and Empirical Applications to Finland 23. The Economic Impact of World War II in America: Multipliers, Productivity, and Sacrifice While Producing Massive Amounts of Munitions Index
Jari Eloranta is Professor of Economic History and currently a Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Jeremy Land is a university researcher in economic history at the University of Helsinki and a visiting scholar at the University of Gothenburg. Elina Kuorelahti is a business historian and a lecturer of Nordic and European studies at the University of Helsinki. Price Fishback is Regents Professor and APS Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona.
