Professor Youngson's book is an ubiased review of Britain's past experience and present difficulties. Few sacred cows are spared. There is no pretence that fundamental problems were resolved at the time of its first publication in 1967. Many econmic historians fail in their assessment of Britian's economic prospects as there is a tendency to look only at recent events to explain current problems. Youngson saw that this was short sighted. An economy, like an airliner, cannot suddenly change its course; it is subject to persistent forces and tendencies; it is powerfully affected by what has happened in the recent and sometimes in the not so recent past. Therefore to understand the problems of today we must know somthing of how persistent they are , and about what solutions have already been tried. This book provides a thorough examination of Britain's economic growth from 1920-1966 and contextualises Britain's situation within its true historical perspective. This book was first published in 1967.

This book was first published in 1981.

Originally published in 1973, the aim of this work was to discuss the various factors governing the rate of growth of the British economy since the First World War. It endeavours to explain – or at least to provide the groundwork for an explanation of – the movements of aggregate production and productivity in this period. In so doing it examines two particular, and partly antithetical questions: why Britain exceeded the predictions of economic theorists who, until at least the Second World War, had forecast a retardation of growth in all mature industrial economies; and why, especially since 1950, the economy has expanded less quickly than many professional economists, and almost all politicians, thought possible. The authors look, in turn, at the changing trends in effective economic demand, both domestic and foreign; the supply of labour and capital; and the role of management and the state in fostering growth. Their object is to produce a balanced mixture of the available historical and statistical evidence and the relevant economic theory. They introduce their readers, at the same time, to the more specialized works of both disciplines. The book is the product of a fruitful collaboration between an economist and a historian, both with considerable experience in teaching students, combining their two subjects. It marries, accordingly, the qualities of apt and informative use of evidence, wide-ranging theoretical discussion, and clarity of exposition.

In this, the second edition of A Social History of England, Francois Bédarida has added a new final chapter on the last fifteen years. The book now traces the evolution of English society from the height of the British Empire to the dawn of the single European market. Making full use of the Annales school of French historiography, Bédarida takes his inquiry beyond conventional views to penetrate the attitudes, behaviour and psychology of the British people.

The most comprehensive bibliography of printed books, articles, and standard texts on twentieth-century England.

A historical account of the course and causes of British economic growth from the mid-nineteenth century until 1973, with special emphasis on the unparalleled growth after the Second World War.