20 Century

Created 9/23/1998
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Notes on the Columbia History of the Twentieth Century

J. Bradford DeLong

Department of Economics, U.C. Berkeley

delong@econ.berkeley.edu

http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/

Richard W. Bulliet, ed. (1998), The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press: 0231076282).

Chapters by/on:

Richard W. Bulliet/High Culture
Richard W. Bulliet/Popular Culture
Rosalind Rosenberg/The Woman Question
Zachary Karabell/Religion
Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim/Athletics
J. Paul Martin/Ethnicity
Ainslee Embree/Imperialism
James Mayall/Nationalism
Sheila Fitzpatrick/Socialism and Communism
Akira Iriye/International Order
Robert O'Connell/War
William Parker/Industry and Business
William McNeil/Money and Economic Change
Christopher Freeman/Technology and Innovation
B.F. Stanton/Agriculture
Jahan Salehi and Richard W. Bulliet/Communications
John Spychalski/Transportation
Eric Holtzman/Scientific Thought
Neil D. Tyson/Paths to Discovery
David Rosner/Medicine
Mary Corliss Pearl/Ecology
Kenneth Jackson/Cities
Georges Sabagh/Demography
Epilogue/Richard W. Bulliet

Richard W. Bulliet (1975), The Camel and the Wheel (New York: Columbia University Press :023107235X).

B.F. Stanton on Agriculture

World Agricultural Land Use

Type of Use 1961-1965 1989 1961-1965 1989
Permanent Crops (Trees, etc.) 90 104 0.7% 0.8%
Cultivated Land 1313 1373 9.8% 10.3%
Permanent Pasture 3043 3304 22.7% 24.7%
Forest and Woodland 4063 4087 30.3% 30.5%
Other Land 4881 4552 36.3% 33.7%
TOTAL 13,390 13,390 100% 100%

Millions of hectares, or percent. Source: FAO Production Yearbooks

 

Cropland by Continent

Continent Cultivated Land Trees, etc. Total Change since 1961-5
Asia 421 32 453 +5
North America 267 7 247 +17
USSR 226 4 230 +1
Africa 168 19 187 -11
Europe 126 14 140 -12
South America 116 26 142 +59
Oceania 49 2 51 +15
TOTAL 1373 104 1477 +74

Millions of hectares. Source: FAO Production Yearbooks

 

60% of people live in Asia, but only 32% of cultivated land; 19% of cultivated land in North America, but only 7% of population.

Rangeley: 80% of production in Pakistan from irrigated fields; 70% in China, 55% in India, Chile, Peru, 50% in Indonesia.

Irrigation up from 40 million hectares in 1900 to 250 million hectares in 1993.

Production of Key Food Crops

 

Area

Production

 

1948-52

1990

1948-52

1990

GRAINS        
Wheat

133

232

140

595

Rice

102

146

164

519

Barley

44

72

53

180

Maize

86

129

139

475

Millet, sorghum

87

82

54

88

Oats and rye

52

38

69

81

TOTAL GRAINS

504

698

618

1938

         
OTHER CROPS        
Potatoes

15

18

167

270

Sweet potatoes

9

12

70

132

Cassava

6

16

52

158

Pulses

37

69

22

59

Soybeans

16

56

16

108

TOTAL OTHER CROPS

83

171

329

726

Millions of hectares, or millions of metric tons. Source: FAO Production Yearbooks

 

Tractors in Agricultural Uses (Millions)

Continent 1950 1990
Europe 1.0 10.4
USSR 0.6 2.7
North America 4.0 5.7
South America 0.1 1.1
Asia -- 5.4
Africa 0.1 0.6
Oceania 0.2 0.4
TOTAL: 6.0 26.2

Source: FAO Production Yearbooks

 

Commercial Fertilizer Use, Million Metric Tons

(Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potash)

Continent 1950 1990
Europe 7.1 31.0
USSR 1.1 24.5
North America 4.7 20.9
South America 0.2 8.5
Asia 1.1 55.2
Africa 0.4 1.9
Oceania 0.6 1.5
TOTAL: 15.2 143.3

Source: FAO Production Yearbooks

 

FAO calories per person per day, vegetable/animal/total:

1961-1963: 1924/365/2289

1987-1989: 2275/428/2703

Jahan Salehi and Richard Bulliet/Communications

When a successful transatlantic cable was laid in 1866, twenty words cost $150, with additional word at $5 each.

Transpacific cable completed in 1902.

1892: 240,000 telephones in use in the United States (1 for every 30 people); private phones cost $250 per year, and public pay phones charged fifteen cents a call.

By 1936, AT&T was servicing 34 million phones, 93 percent of the world total.

1963: Syncom 2; first geosynchronous orbit.

John Spychalski/Transportation

U.S. mail subsidizing air traffic from mid-1918. First Post Office-run airplanes; then the Contract Air Mail Act of 1925.

Douglas DC-3 in 1936 the first viable commercial passenger airplane

Lindbergh 1927; by 1939 1,800,000 passengers on U.S. airlines.

Hindenberg--800 feet long, 100 feet in diameter, spring-summer voyages across the Atlantic only, voyages in 1936-1937 across the Atlantic; Graf Zeppelin between Europe and Brazil from 1931. Limited speed of LACs--80 mph.

1952: BOAC Comet--500 mph, 36 passengers. Metal fatigue. 3 fuselages disintegrated in flight within three years.

By 1990, 70% of the U.S. population 18 and above had flown on an airplane... 430 million passengers on domestic U.S. routes per year.

Olds Motor Works produced less than 10,000 cars in all the years up through 1903.

Model T--1908--price of $850; price reduced to $260 by 1925. Texas gasoline: from 78000 cars (and 1000 trucks) in 1905 to 5.5 millin cars (and 250,000 trucks) by 1918.

World War I: trucking costs of 17 cents per ton mile

Railroad world-war 1-era costs of .0025 cents per ton mile on mainlines, and 2-3 cents per ton mile on branch lines.

In 1919 only 10% of American cars had closed cabs; by 1929 90% of cars manufactured had closed cabs.

Other improvements in the 1920s:

Fifth wheel coupling for tractor-trailer trucks

Holland Tunnel (1927), Bay Bridge (1936), Golden Gate Bridge (1937)

7.5 mile Mont Blanc tunnel in 1965

Bosporus Bridge in 1973

Germany: 4200 miles of autobahnen between 1933 and 1940

Motor vehicles on the eve of World War II: 30 million in the U.S., 2.25 million in France, 1.82 million in Germany, 1.42 million in the U.K.

Trucks: 10% of U.S. intercity freight in 1946, 30% of intercity freight in 1993.

Container revolution of the mid-1950s. 6 or 7 container ships could do the work of 80 break-bulk freighters. 4000 20-foot equivalent units' worth of containers

Neil Tyson/Paths to Discovery

 

Professor of Economics J. Bradford DeLong, 601 Evans Hall, #3880
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
(510) 643-4027 phone (510) 642-6615 fax
delong@econ.berkeley.edu
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/

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