ABSTRACT
Concern over relative economic decline dated, as we have seen, from some time before 1914, although it only became something of a na tional obsession from the 1960s or 1970s. Earlier chapters have dealt with the economic evidence and how to interpret it. Here, we con sider whether, as some have claimed, there are peculiarities in British society that have contributed to economic ‘failure’ and, indeed, why the issue of decline has attracted so much attention.
