Books by Harold James

"The conception of this volume had its origin in the Conference 'Responding to Crises in the Global Financial Environment - Risk Management and Regulation,' that took place in 2010 in Brussels at the National Bank of Belgium, and that was organized by the European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH)"--Page vi

Europe's financial crisis cannot be blamed on the Euro, James contends in this probing exploration of the whys, whens, whos, and what-ifs of European monetary union. The current crisis goes deeper, to conundrums that were debated but not resolved at the time of the Euro's invention. And, Euro or no Euro, these clashes will continue into the future.

Harold James examines the vulnerability and fragility of processes of globalization, both historically and in the present. This book applies lessons from past breakdowns of globalization-above all in the Great Depression-to show how financial crises provoke backlashes against global integration.

These papers were originally given at a conference organized by the Society for European Business History. They reflect the degree of interest and even urgency in the investigation of the involvement of business corporations and of individual businessmen in the politics of the 1930s and 1940s.

James tells how "iron masters" of a classical industrial cast were succeeded by generations who wanted to shift to information-age systems technologies, and how families and firms wrestled with social and economic changes that occasionally tore them apart. The author shows how these firms illuminate a European model of "relationship capitalism."

The process of globalization seems irreversible. However, James provides a sobering historical perspective, exploring the circumstances in which the globally integrated world of an earlier era broke down under the pressure of unexpected events.