History 479B
Devine
Fall 2012
Study Questions for
Murray Rothbard, “War Collectivism in World War I”
- How does the author define “War
Collectivism”? What does this term
mean? How did “War Collectivism”
differ from the more free market-oriented capitalism of the late
nineteenth century?
- What is a cartel? Why does the author believe that
“cartelization” came to dominate the government’s economic policy during
World War I?
- How did war collectivism bring
harmony among all interests (business owners, labor, and government)? How was this “harmony” achieved?
- What was the purpose of the War
Industries Board? (See page 5)
- What role did the leaders of
industry play in the War Industries Board?
What were the pros and cons of having these men in such positions
of power?
- Why did the top executives in
many companies support close cooperation with the government? Why did they accept government
regulation of production and fixing of prices? In short, what was in it for them?
- How did the War Industries Board
insure that its directives were followed?
- Agencies like the Food
Administration were sold to the public as the means for keeping prices down, but the author argues that
their actual effect was to keep prices up. How does he use the example of wheat and
sugar to make his case?
- Why did liberal intellectuals
support War Collectivism? What was
in it for them?
- After World War I, the
“Industrial Board” (p. 24) was created to bring together various
representatives of a given industry so that they might reach an agreement
with the government on what was a “fair” price and then set that price for
their product. The Board’s stated
purpose was to secure large price reductions.
Did it?
- According to the author, why is
it worth looking at the War Collectivism of the 1910s? What broader significance does it have
beyond the immediate context of World War I?
- The author is pretty skeptical of
War Collectivism. Why? What
evidence does he introduce in this article to convince his readers that
they should be skeptical of it too?
- What were the tradeoffs of War Collectivism
during World War I? What good was
achieved? What were the
accompanying costs?