ABSTRACT
In their satisfied contemplation of the post-war record, political and economic commentators have made free use of the adjective ‘miraculous’. This compliment has been most frequently paid to West Germany in acknowledgement of the speed and thoroughness of her recovery. This and other terms of praise and self-congratulation are not undeserved; yet they may have been somewhat misplaced. The most unprecedented phenomenon in post-war Europe was not so much the purely material record of her economy as the spirit which moved it. What was really remarkable (and to some historians and social scientists unexpected) was that economic growth was so powerfully propelled by public sentiments and policies.
