Economics and Morality in the Long 20th Century

A moral history of ideas in economics.

Are economics and morality mutually exclusive? Although many would intuitively answer this question in an affirmative way, economic action is at its core always social action, which can only be understood in the context of moral interpretations and controversies. How, then, have moral arguments been used to criticize or even legitimize economic practices and structures?
The starting point of each of the 20 essays is a concrete historical source that does not belong to the classics of economic theory – such as advertising brochures and everyday objects, pictures, films, and exhibition objects.
Jürgen Finger is head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the German Historical Institute Paris. He has conducted research on the educational and administrative history of the ›Third Reich‹ in southwestern Germany and Alsace, and published a study on the Dr. Oetker company during National Socialism. His current project is devoted to the function of social norms in French capitalism during Belle Époque.

Benjamin Möckel is a research associate at the Institute of History at the University of Cologne. His dissertation detailed the war memories of young people in the Federal Republic and the GDR. He is currently researching on the relationship between consumption and morality in the 20th century.