British Unemployment 1919–1939

Abstract

This 1990 book is a comprehensive study of government reactions to the interwar unemployment problem. Drawing upon an extensive range of primary and secondary sources, it analyses official ameliorative policy towards unemployment and contemporary reactions to such intervention. In doing so, it highlights the struggle that emerged between conventional economic thinking and the calls made by radical economists, industrialists and politicians (including Keynes, Mosley and Lloyd George) for the state to play a more determinant role in economic recovery. There is detailed treatment of the nature and scale of interwar unemployment, regional policy and the complex history of unemployment assistance. In addition, careful study is made of the impact which unemployment had in influencing the conduct of public policy in related areas of economic concern, including industrial policy, overseas trade, colonial development, wage determination, labour supply and the content and purpose of monetary and fiscal policy.

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