The Fruits of Fascism: Postwar Prosperity in Historical Perspective (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

The West German "economic miracle," Simon Reich suggests, may be best understood as a result of the discriminatory economic policies of the Nazi regime. Reich contends that ideological and institutional characteristics originating under fascism were sustained despite Germany's return to democracy and heavily influenced the economic success of its automobile industry. By contrast, the liberal economic policies of the British state led in time to the decline of an industrial sector that in 1930 had closely resembled its German counterpart. Through detailed comparative histories of German and British automobile firms. Reich challenges traditional explanations of these nations' divergent economic performances and sheds new light on the relationship between state policy and economic success in pre- and postwar Europe.