Recommended reading on economy

[South]

Good morning all,

Scheduled for 2013 publication, there's a book titled:

"Hitler's Shadow Empire: Nazi Economics and the Spanish Civil War" by Pierpaolo Barbieri.

I know little to zero on the subject matter and the author but believe it is worth checking this book when published in 2013 since the book deals with a narrow field.

I learned of this book via an article by Barbieri in the Thursday, 9 Aug 12 Wall Street Journal titled "A Lesson in Crony Capitalism". At end of his article was the editorial comment:

"Mr Barbieri is a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School. His book, Hitler's...," will be published by Harvard University Press in 2013."

Of course, there is enough time to arrange for interested forum participants to get book via AHF's Bookstore Program.


Warm regards,

Bob

[Acolyte]

A bit of an old one (1986) bu 'The Audit of War (The Illusion & Reality of Britain as a Great Nation) by Correlli Barnett.

Well worth a few pence in a second hand bookshop

Regards

Andy H

A rather interesting Wall Street Journal review from 1987 is reproduced here:

http://www.vdare.com/articles/bookshelf ... sh-disease

[LWD]

This article which was posted recently in another section of the forum might lead to some interesting sources besides being of some value by itself.
http://libcom.org/files/Germany%20crisis.pdf

[Robin Bromby]

I am not recommending (obviously not as the author, even I am not that cheeky) but I hope to draw attention to a new book I have published via Amazon (e-book and paperback versions), "Fighting on Empty: How Hitler and Hirohito Lost the Economic War". My credentials are that I am a commercially published author who has now taken to self-publishing, and I have been an economics and business writer for Australian national newspapers for 35 years.

Because there have been some very good books on the German war economy (one thinks particularly of Adam Tooze), more focus is given in my book to the Japanese economy. I was astonished when I began researching to discover just how chaotic Japanese economic management was. But I was also startled by so much of German and Italian lack of foresight: the ignoring of plans to maintain Danish agriculture (needed to feed Germany), the fact that even in 1942 German factories were making 119 different types of steam locomotives with all the lack of rationalisation; and that Italy was heavily dependent for vital supplies (oil, metals) on the U.S. and territories controlled by Britain.

Amazon allows you to read the first two chapters -- so you can judge for yourself. Thanks.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Robin
Interesting, I shall have a look.
Two requests.
1) Could you elaborate on the German Steam locomotive issue over on the German railways thread http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 6&start=60
2) Could you post your experience of being a self published author over at the Reference section http://forum.axishistory.com/viewforum.php?f=19 so that other people could hear about working with Amazon in case they want to try it.
cheers

[Guaporense]

I believe that nobody paid much attention to Japan's economic management because the country was so small in it's share of axis warmaking potential that the efficiency of it's war effort was pretty much irrelevant from a broad strategic perspective.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Germany and the Second World War Volume V parts 1 and 2 - the definitive account

[pintere]

I'd check out Overy's "Why the Allies Won". It has a couple of chapters on the economics of the war, and are both definitely worth your while.

[pbarbieri]

Dear all,

I had followed this thread with much interest and wanted to let you all know that my book is now available from Harvard University Press in the US and the UK. It will be published in Italy and Spain later in the year.
It hopefully sheds some light on the central debates in the Nazi Cabinet about rebalancing in 1937, which led to the break between Göring and Schacht, the main protagonist of my study. As it applied to the Spanish Civil War, the "economists" had succeeded in running the intervention there with more economic than ideological goals in mind.
Here is a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Shadow-Em ... bc?ie=UTF8
I very much hope it is of interest.
With kind regards,

pb

[Haven]

Hitler's Shadow Empire: Nazi Economics & the Spanish Civil War
Pierpaolo Barbieri
Harvard University Press
(April 14, 2015)

Pitting fascists and communists in a showdown for supremacy, the Spanish Civil War has long been seen as a grim dress rehearsal for World War II. Francisco Franco’s Nationalists prevailed with German and Italian military assistance―a clear instance, it seemed, of like-minded regimes joining forces in the fight against global Bolshevism. In Hitler’s Shadow Empire Pierpaolo Barbieri revises this standard account of Axis intervention in the Spanish Civil War, arguing that economic ambitions―not ideology―drove Hitler’s Iberian intervention. The Nazis hoped to establish an economic empire in Europe, and in Spain they tested the tactics intended for future subject territories.

The Nazis provided Franco’s Nationalists with planes, armaments, and tanks, but behind this largesse was a Faustian bargain. Through weapons and material support, Germany gradually absorbed Spain into an informal empire, extending control over key Spanish resources in order to fuel its own burgeoning war industries. This plan was only possible and profitable because of Hitler’s economic czar, Hjalmar Schacht, a “wizard of international finance.” His policies fostered the interwar German recovery and consolidated Hitler’s dictatorship. Though Schacht’s economic strategy was eventually abandoned in favor of a very different conception of racial empire, Barbieri argues it was in many ways a more effective strategic option for the Third Reich.

Deepening our understanding of the Spanish Civil War by placing it in the context of Nazi imperial ambitions, Hitler’s Shadow Empire illuminates a fratricidal tragedy that still reverberates in Spanish life as well as the world war it heralded.

Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=8KhKC ... re&f=false

I own this book in PDF format. -- Haven

[Haven]

The Wages of Destruction: The Making & Breaking of the Nazi Economy
Adam Tooze
Penguin Books
(February 26, 2008)

An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial new book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period to explore how Hitler's surprisingly prescient vision- ultimately hindered by Germany's limited resources and his own racial ideology-was to create a German super-state to dominate Europe and compete with what he saw as America's overwhelming power in a soon-to- be globalized world. The Wages of Destruction is a chilling work of originality and tremendous scholarship that is already setting off debate in Germany and will fundamentally change the way in which history views the Second World War

PDF copy of Chapter 7: http://www.worldhistory.pitt.edu/docume ... ading1.pdf

I only have Chapter 7 of this book. -- Haven

[gracie4241]

Tooze," Wages of Destruction";Salavrakos,"A Reassessment of German Armament Production in WW2";O'brien,"How the War was won".2 takeaways from all:The Germans consciously opted to produce fewer armaments in the "winning years"1940-42 to massively invest in expanding their armament plant for FUTURE production,showing 1 their overconfidence especially vis a vis Russia, and partially explaining the "speer armament miracle"of 43-44,and 2" If it is true that the Second World War was ultimately decided on the battlefields of Eastern Europe, by the clash of german and Soviettank armies, then the question arises why the share of firepower and mobility of land forces"WAS SO CONSPICULOUSLY small in Germany", Obrien, supra, p17, quoting from"Germany and the Second World War.Approximately 65-70 % of german armament production was devoted to air and sea warfare(incl Anti aircraft and V-1 and V-2 as air), which was true of all five main combatants-except the Soviet Union.This should be considered when evaluating german v Soviet armament production( and the effects, direct and indirect, of allied strategic bombiong

[tramonte]

Phillips Payson O'Brien: "How The War Was Won". Pretty interesting and surprising data of WW2 munition production of Germany, Britain, America, Japan. Not much at all about Soviet production. In all those countries getting air power was clearly the main priority while army was on the bottom of their lists.