War and Progress

This is an account of how the daily lives of ordinary peoples were changed, profoundly and permanently, by these three momentous decades 1914-1945. Often depicted in negative terms Peter Dewey finds a much more positive pattern in the wealth of evidence he lays before us. His is a story of economic achievement, and the emergence of a new sense of social community in the nation, rather than a saga of disenchantment and decline.

Peter Dewey

1. British Economy and Society in the Early Twentieth Century.  2. The First World War.  3. Population, Social Change and the Labour Force, 1919-39.  4. Government in the 1920s: Economic Functions and Policies.  5. Growing and Declining Industries After 1918.  6. External Trade and Finance, 1918-29.  7. Employment and Unemployment in the 1920s.  8. Economic and Social Welfare in the 1920s.  9. Town, Country and Housing 1918-1939.  10. Leisure Between the Wars.  11. Slump and Depression, 1929-31.  12. The 1931 Crisis and Changes in Policy.  13. Economic Recovery and Growth in the 1930s.  14. Unemployment and Economic and Social Welfare in the 1930s.  15. Rearmament and the War Economy, 1935-45.  16. Civilian Life in the Second World War.  17. The National Balance Sheet, 1900-1945.  Appendix: British Economic Growth Rates in the UK, 1870-1948.  Essay on Further Reading. Bibliography.  Index.