An Economic Spurt that Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History

by Alexander Gerschenkron

In 1900 the newly appointed Austrian prime minister, Ernest von Koerber, initiated a novel program of economic development designed to solve the political and economic problems of the Habsburg Monarchy. Ambitious and ingenious as the plan was, it proved a failure, and in this book Alexander Gerschenkron assesses its career and significance for both Austrian and European history.

The author explains the importance of Koerber's experiment as a way of increasing Austria's economic strength while drawing the country out of divisive political struggles. He ascribes its failure primarily to the obstructionist tactics of Eugen von Boehin-Bawerk, the famous economist, who headed the Austrian Ministry of Finance. In describing the experiment's brief but striking success, Professor Gerschenkron challenges the widespread belief among scholars that disintegrating nationalist forces were irresistible.

Originally published in 1977.

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Genres: Economics, History

184 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1977

About the author

"Gerschenkron was an economic historian and a comparativist, writing on the European past and the Soviet present. He taught from 1948 to 1975 in the department of economics at Harvard, producing, if that is quite the word, scores of graduate students and writing a moderate number of books. He made an impression. Students and colleagues lived in awe of him, and not only because they were merely economists while he was everything, a polymath ranging over statistics and Greek poetry and a great deal in between. Other people who know everything - the Bernard Lewises and the Albert Hirschmans of the scholarly world - tell stories about Gerschenkrons erudition and wit as though even they, too, were impressed."

- Donald McCloskey