Guest Veavitdpoh Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 I'm looking for a summary of the major points of the 1920's economy, something along the lines of "the bulk of iron was mined here, some of which was sent over here for making cars and some of which went over there for making planes; a lot of cotton got grown here, and went mostly towards making Q-Tips there". It's a tall order, I know, but I'm looking to create a new economy and I need a point of reference. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rbezold Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources Tall order... I would start with the bureau of labor and statistics. They might have what you need. You might try a good encyclopedia set, but you're likely to get bogged down into state-by-state research. Do you just want a general overview of how an economy might work? Might I suggest 'Wealth of Nations'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorWandering 1 Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources History/Library science major here. I need more data. There are massive govt archives from the period as well as press runs for major newspapers to draw data from but the question is too big. Is there any way to break the question up? If not i'd point to the local Library. There are a number of good Histories of the 20's and 30's that might help. The came Call Of Cthulhu has some excellent 20's info but it is slanted more to cultural/technological/esoteric history rather than industrial/economic BTW; creating a new economy?!? Tell us more, please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Veavitdpoh Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources Well, here's the thing. I'm trying to create a sort of universal pulp setting. The world consists of a single continent with five major countries and your occasional outlying island, secluded tribe, etc. etc. Into this, I plan to put: the Cold War, Vietnam, the Third Reich (although I'm not sure who's going to end up being oppressed yet), the Mafia, and air pirates, along with various occult/witch/gypsy/MiB/other tawdry groups. The idea is that you'll be able to have trench warfare, or a hard-boiled detective mystery, or a political intrigue, or a mad scientist scenario, or Pirates Vs. Privateers, or... well, anything you like from pulp comics and a sort of general 1920s-1950s setting. Lots of zeppelins and prop planes, so on and so forth. The problem is in justifying the logistics of such a world. CoC is a damn good resource, but like you mentioned, it's more on the social end of things than the industrial. If I can lay a hold of some resource that tells me how things in general operated back then, I figure that'll keep me from making stupid mistakes and missing things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rbezold Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources In that case, I definitely reccomend you read Wealth of Nations. This is pretty much where international capitalism got its start. If you're going to try to realisticly simulate trade between some fairly diparate forms of government, you need to know how trade works. PS: If you're going to simulate the economy of Nazi Germany, you might want to take a peek at the Nuremburg trials and read Economics Minister Albert Speer's 'The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorWandering 1 Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources First off remember you are NOT dealing with a real world economy so fuge like crazy. The pulp genre ignores/does not concern itself with economics so don't let that bog you down. I don't think it was much of a concern to Doc Savage or Indy where their qtips came from. I'm a bit concerned that you country count is so low. You may run out of places for pcs and npcs to be from. Or worse yet you might have trouble creating the "great big mysterious world" feeling of the pulps. 5 countries might get a bit claustrophobic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Veavitdpoh Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources Oh, I plan to fudge like crazy... my main concern is in populating the world right. I need to know if I should have beetle farmers, and where one might find beetle farms. The country count is rather low. I'm kind of working off a pre-existing IP, which limits the liberties I can take. *hunts Wealth of Nations down... like a wild dog* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorWandering 1 Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources Oh, I plan to fudge like crazy... my main concern is in populating the world right. I need to know if I should have beetle farmers, and where one might find beetle farms. The country count is rather low. I'm kind of working off a pre-existing IP, which limits the liberties I can take. *hunts Wealth of Nations down... like a wild dog* Sorry still not seeing what you need. How do beetles fit in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayH Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 Re: Oi, history majors - need 1920's AE resources Not a history major, but might I recommend The World Almanac And Book Of Facts. I think it has the type of information you might be after. Recent issues won't have GNPs and other specific dollar values from the 20's, but it has percentages that can be extrapolated. It's also been published annually since the late 1800's so there may be some period editions available somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.