David Edgerton - The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History

David Edgerton

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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH NATION

A Twentieth-century History

For Alicia Edgerton

UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia

India | New Zealand | South Africa

Allen Lane is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

First published 2018

Copyright David Edgerton, 2018

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover: National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

ISBN: 978-0-141-97596-2

: The United Kingdoms most important suppliers and export markets, 1928

: Imports of food and animal feeding-stuffs to the United Kingdom, 193444

: The top eighteen colliery companies by size of labour force in 1935, with senior figure if peer

: Central and local government expenditure on social services, 192038

: The structure of interwar social services: expenditure and contributions

: UK final energy consumption, 194898, million tonnes of oil equivalent

: Manufacturing shares of output, labour and capital in the whole economy (per cent)

: Output of manufacturing and services, 19482000 (1948 = 100)

: Nine major conflicts by operational deaths, UK armed services, 1945

: UK coal production, inland consumption and exports (including bunkers)

: Share of total personal wealth by percentile, 18952015

: Trade Union membership and the Labour Party vote, 18801960

: Goods trade as a percentage of GDP, 19002000

: Trade as a proportion of GDP, main Western European economies, 195090

: UK food, feed and drink imports and exports at 2011 prices 000 (GDP deflator)

: Household consumption (grams per week) of selected foods from the National Food Survey

: Defence, NHS, education, social security and public investment as percentage of GDP, 19482000

: Inflation and interest rates, 19002000

: Percentage of UK stock market owned by foreign capital, by value, 19632000

: Real GDP, logged, 194899 ( billion)

: United Kingdom estimated gross value added by sector at constant prices, 19482000 ( million)

: UK manufacturing output, 19482014

: Low, If Bolshevism Came to England. No. 1 Capital Leaves the Country (1928). (British Cartoon Archive LSE0435, Associated Newspapers Ltd)

: Vicky, The New Cabinet (1958). (British Cartoon Archive VY1066)

: Vicky, A Nation Neglects Its Eggheads at Its Peril (1964). (British Cartoon Archive 06099, Associated Newspapers Ltd)

: Steve Bell, Falkland Victory, If #0201 (1982). ( Steve Bell)

: Steve Bell, Argy Bargee If #0167 (1982). ( Steve Bell)

: Steve Bell, TUC Conference If #4564 (1999). ( Steve Bell)

. Second World War Canadian propaganda poster showing different administrative regimes in the British Commonwealth and Empire. (Library and Archives Canada National Film Board of Canada fonds e010753702)

. The Edith Cavell monument in London. (Getty)

. A Great War recruitment poster. (Library of Congress LC-USZC4-10880)

. British children in a bomb shelter. (Library of Congress LC-USW33-021089-C)

. An Indian soldier arriving in Singapore 1941 or 1942. (Library of Congress LC-DIG-ds-04824)

. Cartoon by Stanger Pritchard, 1913, from Truth, December 1913. (CC BY Wellcome Collection, no. 15781i)

. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin with Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain and Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill in 1925. (Library of Congress LC-USZ62-111781)

. Clement Attlee, with Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin, in Berlin, August 1945. (Library of Congress LC-USZ62-11988)

. Sir Winston Churchill, with Anthony Eden, visiting President Dwight Eisenhower. (Library of Congress LC-DIG-ppmsca-51668)

. The Temple of Peace and Health, Cardiff. (Getty)

. The new Battersea Power Station, photographed in 1935. (RIBApix RIBA2478)

. The ICI pavilion at the Empire Exhibition, Glasgow, 1938. (RIBApix RIBA17102)

. Spillers Ltd in the Roath Dock, Cardiff, in the 1930s. ( RCAHMW WPWO045713)

. The new Retiro station of the Central Argentine Railway in Buenos Aires. (Library of Congress LC-F81-3829)

. A Ministry of Health leaflet, c.1960. (CC BY Wellcome Collection no. 576282i)

. A Ministry of Health pamphlet, 1948, explaining what would be available on the National Health Service. (CC BY Wellcome Collection)

. A Ministry of Health poster by H. M. Bateman, 1950. (CC BY Wellcome Collection no. 576162i)

. The Brabazon hangar, 1949. (RIBApix RIBA25271)

. A lorry of the newly nationalized railways, 1948. (Getty)

. Ardil Production in Dumfries, 1936, by the noted industrial photographer Walter Nurnberg. (Getty)

. The Royal Mail Amazon, 1965. (Fotoflite)

. Union Jack hat with flags of state industries and enterprises, c.1970. (Getty)

. Cleaners at work on Concorde 002, at the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) works at Filton, Bristol, 1967. (Getty)

. Women machining clothes, 1968, Matlock, Derbyshire. (Getty)

. Possession, by Victor Burgin (1976). (Courtesy British Council Collection)

. Harold Wilson with the Labour Partys slogan and symbol for the February 1974 general election. (Getty)

. Margaret Thatcher with cows. (Getty)

. Diana, Princess of Wales, speaking to machinists at Fords Halewood Plant on its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1988. ( Stephen Shakeshaft/Liverpool Echo)

. Tony Benn, Arthur Scargill and Dennis Skinner at the miners rally in London on 21 October 1992. (Christopher Thomond/Guardian)

AEU Amalgamated Engineering Union

AGR Advanced gas-cooled reactor (a nuclear reactor)

ASTMS Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs

AUEW Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers

AV Alternative Vote

BAT British American Tobacco

BBC British Broadcasting Corporation

BMC British Motor Corporation

BNOC British National Oil Corporation

BP British Petroleum Company, previously Anglo-Iranian

BUF British Union of Fascists

CEGB Central Electricity Generating Board

EFTA European Free Trade Association

EMB Empire Marketing Board

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GEC General Electric Company

GLC Greater London Council

GRT Gross Register Tonnage

ICI Imperial Chemical Industries

ILP Independent Labour Party

INLA Irish National Liberation Army

IRA Irish Republican Army

LRC Labour Representation Committee

LSE London School of Economics

NACODS National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NDLP National Democratic and Labour Party

NEDC National Economic Development Council

NHS National Health Service

NUM National Union of Mineworkers

NUR National Union of Railwaymen

PFI Private Finance Initiative

PIRA Provisional IRA

PPP Public-Private Partnership

PWR Pressurized water reactor (a nuclear reactor)

RAF Royal Air Force