"IF, INSTEAD OF LEAVING THE FASCIST MOVEMENT TO THE MERCY OF DEMAGOGUES… ITS ECONOMIC IDEAS WERE TO BE TAKEN UP SERIOUSLY BY RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE, MANKIND COULD ONLY GAIN BY IT": FIRST EDITION OF THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF FASCISM, 1933

EINZIG, Paul. The Economic Foundations of Fascism. London: Macmillan, 1933. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $1600.

First edition of this important economic survey of early Italian Fascism, in original dust jacket.

It would be an understatement to say that the publication of The Economic Foundations of Fascism had a mixed reception. While Foreign Affairs called it "a well-written survey by a prolific publicist" (Foreign Affairs), Einzig was promptly labeled "pro-fascist" or merely a fascist by many of his contemporaries. Austrian economist Arthur W. Marget wrote in the Journal of Political Economy, "This book is a thoroughly discreditable piece of journalistic hackwork, evidencing on almost every page a degree of naivete or of bias that is truly shocking." In the case of Einzig, everyone really was a critic, most of all his fellow economists. Whatever Einzig's personal beliefs, he has been largely vindicated with regard to the quality of his writing. He remains both a well-known financial journalist and an author who published more than 50 books on financial topics as well as a number of scholarly articles. Einzig did some of his best research during the long period leading up to the Second World War, reporting on Nazi Germany's exploitative exchange rate policies toward the East as well as eventually breaking the scandal of the Swiss National Bank's purchase of looted gold from the Reichsbank in 1943. He was, in short, neither Nazi nor Italian Fascist. This work is a valuable contemporary source that attempts to explain the inner workings of Fascism and what made it economy successful in the early years.

Book very nearly fine, dust jacket near-fine with only light wear and toning to extremities. A handsome copy.