War and Progress (Longman Economic and Social History of Britain)

Dewey, Peter

ISBN 10: 058204586X ISBN 13: 9780582045866

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

BACK OF COVER:
LONGMAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN
General Editor: J.V.Beckett
Professor of English Regional History, University of Nottingham

WAR AND PROGRESS: BRITAIN 1914-1945

The era of the two World Wars was a period of major transition in Britain, as elsewhere. It is often depicted in negative terms: the country struggling under the burdens of an unsustainable world role abroad, while undermined by depression and social division at home. In this striking contribution to the new Longman Economic and Social History of Britain, however, 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 lugubrious saga of disenchantment and decline.

Every aspect of the period comes under his microscope. The topics he reviews include: the impact of the two wars themselves; changing patterns of international trade; the rise and decline of the different industrial sectors; government experiments in economic and social policy; changes in landownership; employment, unemployment and labour relations; health, housing and welfare; and the growing importance of leisure in the interwar years.

These big general themes are counterpointed throughout by Dr Dewey's crisp attention to the particular, and by his sharp eye for telling detail. The book is equally at home examining the impact of mass communications on interwar Britain or considering the significance of government-designed underwear in World War Two.
A vast amount of statistical and other information is processed (and made interesting) in these pages, and one of their great strengths is the clarity with which Peter Dewey can set out even the most complex issues for a non-specialist readership; but he never loses sight of the human realities that lie behind the statistics and the historiographical debates. This is above all the story of how the daily lives of ordinary peoples were changed, profoundly and permanently, by these three momentous decades.

And, he concludes, changed almost universally for the better: for, despite the enormous costs and losses of the two wars, the British people were to emerge from the years covered in this book with higher average living standards, more generous welfare policies, and a more just, humane and egalitarian society than they had ever known before.

PETER DEWEY is Senior Lecturer in Economic History at Royal Holloway, University of London.

About the Author:

PETER DEWEY graduated from the universities of Exeter and Reading, and became a lecturer in economic history at Royal Holloway, University of London, in 1974, retiring as Emeritus Reader in 2002. He was awarded the T.S. Ashton Prize by the Economic History Society in 1975 and the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society in 1979. He was the Secretary of the British Agricultural History Society from 1998 to 2002. He has published extensively in leading history journals, and has two previous books to his credit: "British Agriculture in the First World War" and "War and Progress: Britain 1914-45", a volume in the Longman Economic and Social History of Britain series.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 058204586X
• ISBN 13: 9780582045866
• Binding: Textbook Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 396