ABSTRACT
Nothing in the history of western Europe resembles its experience between 1945 and 1968. By the end of this period the perpetual possibility of serious economic hardship which had earlier always hovered over the lives of three-quarters of the population now menaced only about one-fifth of it. Although absolute poverty still existed in even the richest countries, the material standard of living for most people improved uninterruptedly and often very rapidly for twenty-three years. Above all else, that marks the uniqueness of the experience.
