A Social History of American Inflation: 1910-1914

FAIN: FT-13989-78

Gordon Pollard
SUNY Research Foundation, Buffalo State College (Buffalo, NY 14222-1004)

To study the extent of pre-WWI inflation in the U.S. Concern over the high cost of living seems to have increased dramatically during the period 1910-1914, although economic studies show that price changes were mild in comparison to more recent inflation. Research into America's worried reaction to inflation, which may have been accentuated sharply by deeper worries over new social trends, will be based on 3 empirical questions: 1) Did inflation squeeze middle-income groups most severely? 2) What analyses and prescriptions did diverse interest groups set forth? 3) Were the public pronouncements stimulated by more general personal anxieties?