The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914–1945 / / Mira Wilkins.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Wilkins, Mira,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2009]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Harvard Studies in Business History ; 43
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (1008 p.)

Mira Wilkins, the foremost authority on foreign investment in the United States, continues her magisterial history in a work covering the critical years 1914-1945. Wilkins includes all long-term inward foreign investments, both portfolio (by individuals and institutions) and direct (by multinationals), across such enterprises as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, textiles, insurance, banks and mortgage providers, other service sector companies, and mining and oil industries. She traces the complex course of inward investments, presents the experiences of the investors, and examines the political and economic conditions, particularly the range of public policies, that affected foreign investments. She also offers valuable discussions on the intricate cross-investments of inward and outward involvements and the legal precedents that had long-term consequences on foreign investment. At the start of World War I, the United States was a debtor nation. By the end of World War II, it was a creditor nation with the strongest economy in the world. Integrating economic, business, technological, legal, and diplomatic history, this comprehensive study is essential to understanding the internationalization of the American economy, as well as broader global trends.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- 1. The First World War, 1914–1918 -- 2. America’s New Role, 1919–1923 -- 3. Survival, Expansion, and New Arrivals, 1919–1923 -- 4. Prosperity, 1924–1929 -- 5. The Foreign Multinationals, 1924–1929 -- 6. A Time of Anguish, October 1929–March 1933 -- 7. A World at Risk, 1933–1939 -- 8. War Abroad, 1939–1941 -- 9. World War II, 1941–1945 -- 10. American Hegemony -- Appendixes -- Appendix 1: Definitions -- Appendix 2: Notes on the Statistics -- Appendix 3: Detailed Sources for Tables 2.1, 8.3, and 10.1 -- Appendix 4: Principal U.S. Federal Legislation Affecting Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914–1945 -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index