Abstract:
This paper explains how governments responded to the global economic
crisis caused by the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of
1914. It argues that, through a handful of highly unorthodox policies
– including government bank bailouts, commodity producer rescues, and
banking moratoriums – many states effectively responded to this
crisis of unparalleled severity and global reach: from Britain and
Paris to colonial Malaya, Egypt, and Chile. It suggests that these
stabilizations were both crucial for allowing the war to unfold as it
would and represented important new departures in how states
intervened in markets.
Bio (from
Jamie Martin is an international historian with a focus on the history of international political economy and empire, particularly during the era of the world wars. He is the author of The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Birth of Global Economic Governance (Harvard University Press, 2022), which charts the origins and rise of the first international institutions to govern global capitalism after World War I – and the political resistance they generated around the world, from Western Europe to the Balkans, the United States, Latin America, China, and colonial Southeast Asia. He has published widely on the political economy of the world wars, international institutions, the history of commodities, and the intellectual history of crisis. His public writing - on topics such as the history of central banking, financial crisis, and global governance - has also appeared in The New York Times, The London Review of Books, The Nation, n+1, Dissent, Bookforum, and The Guardian.
Date: Thursday, 11.12.2025
Time: 15:00-16:30
Location: P673,
Online attendance (webinar, listen-only):
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