Economic history is more prosaic.
This period spans the slump following World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the New Deal and World War II times of turmoil encompassing every form of economic, technological, political and social change. Studies of wage determination during this time can therefore illuminate many competing hypotheses, perhaps more effectively than studies of the more-tranquil postwar period. Such inquiries also have intriguing implications for other fields, including history, political science, and even international relations. This wave crested between the end of the World War II and the late fifties. A second and very recent wave followed the decay of the original postwar American wage system.