Book Synopsis

"The leading and most persuasive explanation of the worst economic disaster in American history, the onset of the Great Depression."--Ben S. Bernanke, Nobel Prize-winning economist and former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and his celebrated colleague Anna Jacobson Schwartz's landmark reinterpretation of the Great Depression

Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 is one of the most influential economics books of the twentieth century. A landmark achievement, it marshaled massive historical data and sharp analytics to argue that monetary policy--steady control of the money supply--matters profoundly in the management of the nation's economy, especially in navigating serious economic fluctuations. Perhaps no other chapter of this monumental book had a greater impact than "The Great Contraction, 1929-33," which offered a fundamental reinterpretation of the central economic event of the twentieth century--the Great Depression. The Great Contraction, 1929-1933 presents that chapter, which runs to more than 200 pages, as a stand-alone book, in an edition that also features a new preface by Anna Jacobson Schwartz and a new introduction by the economist Peter Bernstein, both of which place the work and its lasting impact in context. In addition, the book includes a speech by Nobel Prize-winning economist and former chair of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, in which he reflects on the continuing importance of Friedman and Schwartz's work.

About the Author

Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and had previously taught at the University of Chicago, from 1946 to 1976. He was also a member of the research staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1937 to 1981. Anna Jacobson Schwartz (1915-2012) was a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, which she joined in 1941. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. During her distinguished career, she has made major contributions to the economics of business cycles, banking, monetary policy, and financial regulation.