In 1918, the Soviet revolutionary government repudiated the Tsarist regime’s sovereign debt, triggering one of the biggest sovereign defaults ever. Yet the price of Russian bonds remained high for years. Combing French archival records, Kim Oosterlinck shows that, far from irrational, investors had legitimate reasons to hope for repayment. Soviet debt recognition, a change in government, a bailout by the French government, or French banks, or a seceding country would have guaranteed at l...

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize“A magisterial work.” —New York Times Book Review“The rich and charming story of the end of the world.” —TIME“Highly readable.” —Financial Times“This absorbing study of the first collective of central bankers is provocative, not least because it is still relevant.” —The Economist**It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events ...

**The classic history of the political and economic devastation wrought by runaway inflation in Weimar Germany—“**brilliant” (Guardian)In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for ...

A brilliant investigation into the most powerful institution you’ve never heard of.**“An absorbing and thorough examination.” —**ReutersThe Bank for International Settlements is the bank for central banks. It is one of the world’s most secretive—and most influential—global financial institutions.Created by the governors of the Bank of England and the Reichsbank in 1930 and protected by an international treaty, the BIS and i...

TRAGEDY AND HOPE shows the years 1895-1950 as a period of transition from the world dominated by Europe in the nineteenth century to the world of three blocs in the twentieth century. With clarity, perspective, and cumulative impact, Professor Quigley examines the nature of that transition through two world wars and a worldwide economic depression. As an interpretative historian, he tries to show each event in the full complexity of its historical context. The result is a unique work, nota...

In The German Empire, one of Europe's great historians and men of letters chronicles one of history's most fateful transformations--Germany's rise from new nation to prime mover in the chain of events that sent it hurtling into two world wars.In 1871, Otto von Bismarck fused with "blood and iron" a motley collection of principalities, Free Cities, and bishoprics into one Reich. In England, Benjamin Disraeli observed that the world was witnessing "a greater political event ...

An economic horror story: The complete meltdown of a major modern country's financial system, and its disastrous effects on every aspect of society.A hundred years ago, many theorists believed-just as they did at the beginning of our twenty-first century-that the world had reached a state of economic perfection, a never before seen human interdependence that would lead to universal growth and prosperity. Then, as now, the German mark was one of the most trusted cur...

A scathing attack on Wall Street's illegal ties to Nazi Germany before WWII—and the postwar whitewashing of Nazi business leaders by the US governmentPrior to World War II, German industry was controlled by an elite group who had used their money and influence to help bring the Nazi Party to power. After the Allies had successfully occupied Germany and removed the Third Reich, the process of reconstructing the devastated nation's economy began under supervision of t...

The fateful blunder that radically altered the course of the twentieth century—and led to some of the most murderous dictators in historyPresident Woodrow Wilson famously rallied the United States to enter World War I by saying the nation had a duty to make “the world safe for democracy.” But as historian Jim Powell demonstrates in this shocking reappraisal, Wilson actually made a horrible blunder by committing the United States to fight. Far from making the world ...

The French call them 'the Dark Years'... This definitive new history of Occupied France explores the myths and realities of four of the most divisive years in French history. Taking in ordinary people's experiences of defeat, collaboration, resistance, and liberation, it uncovers the conflicting memories of occupation which ensure that even today France continues to debate the legacy of the Vichy years.

"Tony Judt's elegant essay is a good place to begin discussion of these two large postwar questions: What is Europe? And where is it going?" — Michael Mandelbaum, Johns Hopkins University*"I am enthusiastically European; no informed person could seriously wish to return to the embattled, mutually antagonistic circle of suspicious and introverted nations that was the European continent in the quite recent past. But it is one thing to think an outcom...

Did the arms race of the 1930s cause the Second World War?In Cry Havoc, historian Joseph Maiolo shows, in rich and fascinating detail, how the deadly game of the arms race was played out in the decade prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. In this exhaustively researched account, he explores how nations reacted to the moves of their rivals, revealing the thinking of those making the key decisions -- Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Stalin, Roosevelt -- and the dilem...