Del 48 i serien Records of Social and Economic History

Inside the Department of Economic Affairs

Samuel Brittan, the Diary of an 'Irregular', 1964-6

Inbunden, Engelska, 2012

1 179 kr

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The rise and fall of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) parallels the promised but eventually unfulfilled modernization agenda of the 1964-6 Wilson government. The diary kept by Samuel Brittan (in contravention of civil service rules) for the fourteen months in which he served as an 'irregular' in the DEA provides a unique source for understanding the growth ambitions of the new government and why they quickly ran into the sands. Published here in full, with extensive notes, the diary sheds light on the Wilson government more broadly, giving insights into the 'great reappraisal' of economic policy, the reform of government institutions and the personalities of those involved.Samuel Brittan emerged as the most important economic journalist of his generation (at the Financial Times from 1955, with brief interruptions, to the present). His diary is would be of interest for that reason alone, but it has a double value because of the special place that his book, The Treasury under the Tories, 1951-64, has in diagnoses of successive failures in postwar British economic policy. The diary is central to understanding why Brittan turned against 1960s dirigisme and thus constitutes an important contribution to the early intellectual history of the reaction against the postwar consensus.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2012-04-12
Mått161 x 240 x 22 mm
Vikt572 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieRecords of Social and Economic History
Antal sidor220
FörlagOUP OXFORD
ISBN9780197265000

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Professor Roger Middleton, AcSS has the chair in the history of political economy and is head of the School of Humanities at the University of Bristol. He is the author of a number of works on British economic policy, performance and the history of economic thought since the late nineteenth century. He is currently working on a variety of projects, on neo-liberalism in Britain, of which Brittan's diary is one of a number of publications on the theme of 'Brittan on Britain'; on economic policy in the 1930s; and is also the founding general editor of the British Historical Statistics Project which will produce a multi-volume and online successor to Mitchell's British Historical Statistics.He is Reviews Editor, Economic History Review. His books have won awards: twice CHOICE outstanding book (for my 1996 and 1998 books). He has been honoured as Academician of the Social Sciences (AcSS).

From the perspective of the serious scholar ... this is a most valuable resource ... This is a book for the academic connoisseur, who will be indebted to the immense skill of its editor, Roger Middleton, as much as to the diarist himself. Nicholas Crafts, Financial Times Professor Middleton is to be commended for the diligence with which he has edited the book Nigel Lawson, Standpoint The diary has been expertly edited by Roger Middleton, who contributes a most valuable introduction that provides the background to the making of economic policy. Vernon Bogdanor, New Statesman