The purpose of The Handbook of Major Events in Economic History is to provide readers with a relative brief and cogent explanation of the major occurrences in the field: charting economic history from the nineteenth to twenty first centuries.

The book contains a host of pithy but comprehensive essays written by top scholars focusing on the economics of individual events in economic history and the episodic nature of events, the collection of which over time make up our historical economic record.

Randall E. Parker is Professor of Economics at East Carolina University, USA.

Robert Whaples is Professor of Economics at Wake Forest University, USA. .

Part 1: World War I and the Pre-World War I Era 1. First and Second Bank of the United States Eric Lomazoff 2. The Panic of 1873 Elmus Wicker 3. Gold Resumption and the Deflation of the 1870s Pierre Siklos and Richard Burdekin 4. Great Merger Wave Anthony O'Brien 5. The Panic of 1893 Mark Carlson 6. The Panic of 1907 Ellis Tallman 7. The Founding of the Federal Reserve System Mark Toma 8. World War I Jari Eloranta 9. The Classical Gold Standard Kris Mitchener Part 2: The Interwar Era and World War II 10. The 1920s Martha Olney 12. The Crash of 1929 Howard Bierman 13. The British Abandonment of the Gold Standard Michael Kitson 14. The Great Depression 1929-33 Randall Parker 14. The Great Depression, Microeconomics of the New Deal Price Fishback 15. The Great Depression, Macroeconomics of the New Deal Lee Ohanian 16. Monetary Policy during the Great Depression Jim Butkiewicz 17. World War II Robert Higgs Part 3: Post-World War II Era 18. The Marshall Plan Nick Crafts 19. Urban Riots of the 1960s Bill Collins 20. The Great Inflation Robert Hetzel 21. History of Oil Shocks James Hamilton 22. The Rise and Fall of the Phillips Curve in the 1960s and 1970s Arnold Kling 23. The Rise and Fall of the Bretton Woods System Barry Eichengreen 24. The 1980s Disinflation Allan Meltzer 25. The Rise of China Loren Brandt 26. The Rise of India Areendam Chanda 27. The Bust and Stagnation of Japan Etsuro Shioji 28. The Fall of the Soviet Union Rick Ericson 29. The Development of Trade Institutions and the Advent of Globalization by Teresa Gramm Part 4: The Contemporary Era 30. World Hyperinflations Steve Hanke and Nicholas Krus 31. The Financial Panic of 2008 Gary Gorton and Andrew Metrick 32. Monetary Policy in the Crisis of 2008 and Beyond W.D. McMillin 33. Rise of Mass Market Merchandisers Art Carden 34. Government Bailouts Robert Wright 35. Entitlements, Debt and Deficits John Seater