As social inequality grows, historical analysis on wealth and income distribution across the 20th century often does not take into account inequality of education, health, housing and chances of social mobility, nor does it differentiate statistical inequality from the realities of peoples’ actual experience. With this broad understanding in mind, in a long look back on the history of social inequality in Europe, The Rich and the Poor in Modern Europe addresses these neglected subjects. It also tackles the commonplace notion that modern capitalism inevitably produces wealth gaps and asks whether the facts and figures we possess also lead to alternate interpretations of examples of mitigated inequality. Covering the 20th century and the beginnings of the 21st century in Europe through wars, and economic crises, through periods of unprecedented economic prosperity and staggering economies, both exacerbating and dampening the problem, acclaimed historian Hartmut Kaelble offers a rigorous response to understanding our present-day challenge of social inequality.
Table of Content
Foreword to the English-Language Edition
Introduction
Chapter 1. Social Inequality before 1914: Unregulated Industrial Capitalism
Chapter 2. Social Inequality, 1914 to 1945 – A Retrograde Period?
Chapter 3. Social Inequality from the 1950s to the 1970s – A Period of Mitigation
Chapter 4. Social Inequality since the 1980s: An Era of a Growing Gap between Rich and Poor
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Notes
List of Tables and Graphs
Select Bibliography
Index
About the author
Hartmut Kaelble has been Professor Emeritus at Humboldt University in Berlin since 2009. From 1971–1991, he was Professor of Social History at Free University Berlin and from 1991–2008 at Humboldt University.
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