# Instability of the Pre-War Economic Order in The Economic Consequences of the Peace

> Theme guide for The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes.

Keynes highlights the fragile and temporary nature of the pre-war economic boom, which was based on unsustainable population growth, inequality, and dependence on foreign food supplies, making it vulnerable to collapse.

## Where it surfaces

- [I: Introductory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/chapters/i-introductory): Keynes emphasizes the 'intensely unusual, unstable, complicated, unreliable, temporary nature' of the economic organization Western Europe relied on for the last half century.
- [Europe Before the War](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/chapters/ii-europe-before-the-war): Highlights three factors of instability: excessive population dependent on a fragile organization, psychological instability of classes, and precarious food supplies from the New World.
- [Population](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/chapters/i-population): The German machine is compared to a top that must spin ever faster to maintain equilibrium, highlighting the fragility of the pre-war economic order.
- [Organization](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/chapters/ii-organization): The description of the delicate organization and reliance on internal and external factors hints at the fragility of the pre-war system, which was disrupted by the war.
- [III: The Psychology of Society](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/chapters/iii-the-psychology-of-society): The system depended on 'unstable psychological conditions' that the war has shattered, making it impossible to recreate.
- [IV: The Relation of the Old World to the New](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/chapters/iv-the-relation-of-the-old-world-to-the-new): The system was threatened by diminishing returns, population growth overseas, and Europe's precarious claim on food supplies.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/themes/unstable_prewar_system
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_economic_consequences_of_the_peace_se/themes