"Davies's book examines the financial panics of 1873, considering both the financial speculations born of exuberance that led to these panics and the interpretative speculations born of the crises, and exploring what this in turn reveals about contemporary notions of the world economy and...

The year 1873 was one of financial crisis. A boom in railway construction had spurred a bull market-but when the boom turned to bust, transatlantic panic quickly became a worldwide economic downturn. In Transatlantic Speculations, Hannah Catherine Davies offers a new lens on the panics of 1873...

Introduction -- The legacy of Napoleon: embargo, war, and peace -- Three revolutions: market, transportation, corporation -- Volcano weather -- Alabama fever: "I must go West and plant" -- Bank expansion: "frothy bubbles" -- Bank contraction: "the axe must be applied to the root of the evil" --...

Introduction -- Hard times from colonial to postrevolutionary America -- Hard times and the financial panics of 1819 and 1837 -- The panics of 1873 and 1893, and hard times in between -- Depressions and policy disputes in America, circa 1720-1928 -- The onset of the Great Depression -- The early...