Publication of 'A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960'

In 1963, after a collaboration spanning some fifteen years, Anna Jacobson Schwartz and economist Milton Friedman published "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960." The book is widely regarded as one of the most influential works in twentieth-century economics.

The book's central and controversial thesis argued that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy failures — rather than solely structural weaknesses in the economy — were primarily responsible for turning the 1929 stock market crash into the prolonged and devastating Great Depression. This reframing had enormous influence on subsequent central banking policy and monetary theory, including directly influencing the Federal Reserve's aggressive intervention during the 2008 financial crisis, an approach explicitly credited to lessons drawn from Schwartz and Friedman's analysis.

Despite the immense credit Friedman received (including citation of this work in his 1976 Nobel Prize), Schwartz's contribution was foundational — she compiled and analyzed the vast historical statistical datasets underpinning the book's arguments. Her exclusion from the Nobel recognition, despite comparable scholarly contribution, is frequently cited as an example of the systemic underrecognition of women economists of her era.

The book cemented Schwartz's legacy as one of history's most important monetary economists and remains foundational reading in macroeconomics and economic history programs worldwide.

Note: exact month and day of publication are not documented; this date is a placeholder for the year 1963.