ABSTRACT
"BALANCE OF PAYMENTS CRISIS" AND "POUND IN PERIL" were the headlines greeting the British in 1947. The same headlines also greeted them in 1957, 1967, and 1976 and in many other years, though most readers skipped by them. Having heard the cry of wolf but never having seen him, they left this headache to economists and statesmen and turned to the home department, to the fashion page, or to the car ads and read of a reality that in 30 years had transformed their lives, a reality of increasing wealth, advancing technology, and "the good life." He or she also read newspaper reviews of plays filled with sex, of movies packed with violence, of revolutionary art shows, and of the newest books. Editorials told the reader of comprehensive schools, the Open University, and divorce and abortion reforms, issues that revealed a freer, more mobile, more open, and more stressful world. It was these social developments, not debates on the pound, that defined the daily life of the English. Of these developments, easily the most profound was the simple fact that every year except 1976 and 1977 saw the British wealthier than the year before, a result of remarkable advances in technology.
