------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------  
Published by EH.NET (September 2005)  
  
Nicholas Woodward, _The Management of the British Economy,   
1945-2001_. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004. xi + 305   
pp. �49.99 (hardback), ISBN: 0-7190-4979-2.  
  
Reviewed for EH.NET by Catherine R. Schenk, Department of Economic   
and Social History, University of Glasgow.  
  
  
To scholars and students of post-war British economic history, the   
title of this textbook will evoke the classic study by J.C.R. Dow,   
_The Management of the British Economy, 1945-60_ (Cambridge   
University Press), first published in 1964.  Twenty years later this   
book was still a standard account of its period, blending analysis of   
policy with an assessment of economic performance in the 1950s.   
Woodward consciously chose his title to echo Dow's emphasis on the   
importance of economic policy formation in the era of demand   
management.  The supply of textbooks on the post-war British economy   
has swelled recently. Cairncross partly replaced Dow in 1985 with his   
insider's account of _Years of Recovery; British Economic Policy,   
1945-51_ (Methuen, 1985) and then _The British Economy since 1945_   
(Blackwell, 1995).  The latter does not appear in Woodward's   
bibliography.  Middleton's shorter _The British Economy since 1945_   
(Macmillan, 2000) blends policy and economic analysis for   
undergraduate students.  In 1991, Woodward himself edited a textbook   
with Crafts on _The British Economy since 1945_ (Oxford University   
Press) which drew together a range of scholars and approaches.  The   
present volume adds to this collection of textbooks by bringing the   
period of analysis up to the end of the twentieth century.  
  
The book is arranged chronologically and the chapters loosely follow   
a similar structure. After a brief survey of the period there is a   
description of the 'policy machine,' which reviews the individuals   
and departments/offices that were important to policy-making.  There   
then follows a description and evaluation of policy. The chapters on   
the 1950s and 1960s separate the description of policy into   
'financial policy,' which is a mixture of fiscal policy and incomes   
policy, and then 'supply-side policy,' which includes the various   
development councils and other initiatives. There is very little   
reference to monetary policy until the 1980s, despite the active use   
of bank rate and controls on bank lending in the 1950s and 1960s. As   
in most textbooks there is a useful glossary and calendar of events   
to guide students.  
  
This is an overwhelmingly domestic account of policy-making with   
brief side references to such key developments as European   
integration, Anglo-American or Commonwealth relations.  There is no   
account of the changes in Britain's international trade and   
investment patterns over the period despite substantial shifts that   
influenced the evolution of the economy and economic policy-making.   
On the other hand, the analysis does not unpack the domestic British   
economy into its constituent parts or regions.  The analysis   
implicitly fits into the 'decline-ist' view of Britain's post-war   
economic performance but does not delve into comparative indicators.  
  
Woodward concludes that economic policy broadly failed to achieve its   
goals of relatively low unemployment and low inflation, at least   
until 1990s.  This was due to weaknesses among individual   
policy-makers and mistakes by the Treasury, as well as political   
pressures and the constraints of public opinion on what was feasible.   
More substantially, he blames the targets of policy-making; wage   
restraint and Keynesian demand management in the 1960s and 1970s, and   
intermediate targets (money supply and then exchange rate) in the   
1980s.  He is more optimistic about Tony Blair's Labour governments   
in the 1990s, going so far as to suggest this period of inflation   
targeting has been the most successful period of policy-making since   
1945.  
  
In sum, this is a useful but not essential addition to the existing   
list of textbooks on this topic.  It will be easily understood by   
first and second year undergraduates but will need to be supplemented   
by more thorough accounts of the development of the economy itself   
and of international economic relations.  
  
  
Catherine R. Schenk is Professor of International Economic History at   
the University of Glasgow.  She has published widely on British   
post-war economic history, the development of the international   
monetary system and the economic history of Hong Kong. She is   
currently engaged on projects assessing British management of the   
decline of sterling in the 1960s and 1970s and analyzing the   
competitiveness of the Hong Kong banking system. She will be a   
visiting research fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary   
Research and Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong in   
2005.  
  
Copyright (c) 2005 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be   
copied for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to   
the author and the list. For other permission, please contact the   
EH.Net Administrator ([log in to unmask]; Telephone: 513-529-2229).   
Published by EH.Net (September 2005). All EH.Net reviews are archived   
at http://www.eh.net/BookReview.  
  
-------------- FOOTER TO EH.NET BOOK REVIEW  --------------  
EH.Net-Review mailing list  
[log in to unmask]  
http://eh.net/mailman/listinfo/eh.net-review