ABSTRACT
During the 1950s the global economy not only recovered from the crises of the 1930s and the Second World War but embarked on a period of sustained growth. World industrial production came close to doubling between 1953 and 1963, a performance which was repeated in the following decade. Equally important, until the early 1970s annual growth rates actually increased as the global economy grew – an indication of impressive levels of production, productivity, and consumption. Of course, growth was unevenly distributed, but even the so-called LDCs (less developed countries) shared to some extent in the economic boom (Kennedy 1988: 413-16).
