A Report on Research in Economic History1

By reason of the war, a report to the Social Science Research Council more extensive than any I have hitherto submitted seems appropriate. The war has affected us in several ways. Our “terms of reference” reflected the international situation, since they directed our attention to the economic history of countries embraced in the Western Hemisphere; it has steadily diminished the speed with which our research work has gone forward, until that work is now largely at a standstill; and it lately has begun to make us think and plan in terms of a more effective postwar period. Inasmuch as the Committee has definitely selected the areas of special research interest that will probably engage its full attention in the years immediately ahead and inasmuch as the period of its present appointment may extend hardly beyond the war period itself, there appears to be particular reason why I should lay before you the general scheme of its research plans, the specific projects that it has thus far sponsored within its chosen fields, and a series of outlines of what might be attempted in these general areas by research people released sooner or later from war services. In a sense, this report of mine is an effort at postwar planning.