Reconstruction and Capitalist Reform

Abstract

World War II reshaped capitalism and liberal democracy by reordering both the domestic and the international order. This book is about the domestic legacy of the war. In belligerent and neutral countries alike, the war years engendered an expansion of state capacities that permanently changed the balance between state and society. When the war ended in 1945, the reconstruction process rested on piecemeal government decisions to remove or retain wartime controls over society and the economy. In the process of making those decisions, governments shaped society and markets in their own image.