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Not Guilty? Agriculture in the 1920s and the Great Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2005

GIOVANNI FEDERICO
GIOVANNI FEDERICO
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of History and Civilization, European University Institute, Via Boccaccio 121, 50133 Firenze, Italy. E-mail [email protected].
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Abstract

Agricultural distress in the 1920s is routinely quoted among the causes of the Great Depression. This article challenges the conventional wisdom. World agriculture was not plagued by overproduction and falling terms of trade. The indebtedness of American farmers, a legacy of the boom years 1918–1921, did jeopardize the rural banks, but the relation between their crises, the banking panic of 1930, and the Great Depression is tenuous at best.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 949 - 976
Copyright
© 2005 The Economic History Association

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