Michael Huberman

Michael Huberman, trained at the University of Toronto, works on topics in modern economic history, with a special interest in globalization and labor markets. Between 2012 and 2022 he held the Chaire in "Etudes américaines" at the Université de Montreal. He was a Fulbright scholar at UCLA and has taught at the Université de Genève and the University of Vienna<;

The project

Title : Social Democracy in Interwar Europe: Unfinished Business

"Historians have not been generous with European social democracy during the interwar period. In elections around 1930, for a sample of European countries, including Italy and Germany, social democratic parties received over 100 million votes which amounted to 30 percent of the European electorate. They were clearly a force to reckon with, but  the standard claim is that social democrats, whether in power or opposition, did not have the foresight to recognize and contain the dangers associated with the rise of extreme parties on the right and the left. Their program was unsustainable—their reach was beyond their grasp—and failure was more than often brought about by internal conflict and party intrigue. The rapid and complete breakdown of democracy was inevitable. I suggest that this conclusion is exaggerated and, at best, partial. In a manuscript (University of Chicago Press) I am currently preparing, I argue that we have tended to overlook the successes of social democratic parties in these years, especially with regard to reducing wealth and income inequality, as well in attempts to resurrect the international economy in the wake of the Great Depression and the discriminatory trade practices of the period. My contention is that the collapse of social democratic parties was more the result of external and unanticipated circumstances outside their control than internal divisions and conflict."

Hosting institution: Paris School of Economics

Selective bibliography

• M. Huberman, Marc Badia-Miró and Anna Carreras-Marin, “Smooth Sailing: Market Integration, Agglomeration, and Productivity Growth in Interwar Brazil.” European Review of Economic History 27 (2023): 45-69.
• M. Huberman and Mario Holzner, “Red Vienna: A Social Housing Experiment, 1923-1933.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 53 (2022): 49-88.
•  M. Buberman and Concepción Betrán, “Against the Grain: Spanish Trade Policy in the Interwar    yeYears.” Journal of Economic History 82 (2022): 42-86.
• M. Huberman, Odd Couple: International Trade and Labor Standards in History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).