ABSTRACT
The ideograph of Britain's economic position between the two world wars, 20 years of economic history, is simple: ‘Mutinies at demobilization in 1918 set the tone for the hostility, violence and disorder which characterized the years of peace to come. Short-lived feverish booms and endemic depression in the basic industries revived all the aggressive traditions in labour disputes experienced in the pre-war years. Violence after 1926 gave way to apathy only when all the main organized political parties had failed to overcome the problems of unemployment. Politics were dominated, and it seems defeated, by economic problems. Political crisis and ineptitude in policy measures enlarged the dimensions of industrial depression until distress became mitigated only by the onset of a crisis in foreign affairs which led, reluctantly, to rearmament after 1936.’
