Sidney Pollard. The Devolopment of the British Economy, 1914-1980. 3rd ed. London: Edward Arnold, 1983.
John Stevenson and Chris Cook. The Slump: Society and Politics During the Depression. London: Jonathan Cape, 1977.
Martin Wiener. English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850-1980. New York: Cambridge Univerity Press, 1981.
This is a view also shared by historians John Stevenson and Chris Cook, who instead of doing detailed statistical analyses, show how average living standards steadily improved during the Interwar period. In addition to improvements in housing conditions mentioned in greater detail by Pollard, the 1920s and 1930s were also a time when the ownership of automobiles increased sharply and when leisure activities, travel and sporting events increased greatly in popularity. [1] Even the 1930s, which are typically seen as a time of great distress and deprivation, were in reality a period of steadily rising living standards for the majority of the population. In their concluding chapter, Stevenson and Cook argue that "By 1939 the average family was better off, healthier, and better housed than it had been in 1929." [2] The idea of the "hungry thirties" is--Stevenson and Cook argue--a myth perpetrated by various impressionist novelists such as George Orwell and Joseph Priestley. It did not happen for the most part.
Yet, while Stevenson and Cook see the increase of leisure activities as a harbinger of a post-war "age of affluence," Martin Wiener sees it as indicative of a longer trend of British industrial decline. The pursuit of leisure and the accompanying obsession with rural England, hampered British industrial development after 1851. Businessmen aspired not to become the richest men as many of their counterparts in Germany and the United States did, but rather to attain the coveted position of a landed gentleman. [3] Industries failed to modernize as rapidly as those of Germany, the U.S. and elsewhere, and thus, Britain increasingly fell behind her competitors during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the majority of the twentieth. In short, the British fixation of status hampered a once superior economy, as businessmen and others were highly suspicious of any change, were reluctant to innovate, and energetic only in maintaining the status quo. [4] Thus the post-WWI dislocations, which Branson and Heinemann argue were caused as much by government and business inertia than anything associated directly with the war, and which Pollard, Stevenson and Cook downplay, were merely part of a much longer period and a much larger pattern. They are almost entirely the result of these long-term social and cultural attitudes against industrialization.
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