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Originally published in1985, Jim Tomlinson charters the route of
British macroeconomic policy in the post-war era. This book argues
that the objectives of macroeconomic policy have not been constant;
that the emphasis has shifted from one item to another over time;
and that this uncertainty and inconsistency over objectives goes a
long way to explaining why macroeconomics management has not been a
startling success.
Most historical accounts of economic policy set out to describe the
way in which governments have attempted to solve their economic
problems and to achieve their economic objectives. Jim Tomlinson,
however, focuses on the problems themselves, arguing that the way
in which areas of economic policy become problems for policy makers
is always problematic itself, that it is never obvious and never
happens naturally.
This approach is quite distinct from the Marxist, the Keynesian or
the neo-classical accounts of economic policy, the schools of
thought which are described and criticized in the introduction.
Subsequent chapters use the issues of unemployment, the gold
standard and problems of trade and Empire to demonstrate that these
competing accounts all obscure the true complexities of the
process. Because they adhere to simple assumptions about the role
of economic theory or of vested interests previous histories have
been unable adequately to explain the dramatic change after the
First World War in attitudes to unemployment, for instance, or the
decision to return to gold in 1925. Jim Tomlinson surveys the
institutional circumstances, the conflicting political pressures
and the theories offered at the time in an attempt to discover the
conditions which characterized the questions as economic problems
and contributed to the choice of solutions.
The result is a sophisticated and intellectually compelling account
of matters which have remained at the forefront of political debate
since its first publication in 1981.
The key aim of this new book is to show how economic decline has
always been a highly politicised concept, forming a central part of
post-war political argument. In doing so, Tomlinson reveals how the
term has been used in such ways as to advance particular political
causes.
The Conservatives and Industrial Efficiency, 1951-1964 responds to
the need for a full assessment of the Conservatives performance in
this crucial period. Drawing upon a wide range of archival sources,
Nick Tiratsoo and Jim Tomlinson explore the different aspects of
the efficiency question. Beginning with the major issue of attempts
in the 1950s to americanize British industry, the authors also
discuss the Conservatives policy on ompetition, education and
training, investment and research and development. This new survey
reveals that the Conservatives were informed about each of these
issues, yet shrank from effective reform. They were, rather,
reduced to inertia by ideological dilemmas, internal party
antagonisms and conflicting strategic objectives. Tiratsoo and
Tomlinson conclude that 1951 - 1964 were indeed 'thirteen wasted
years'. This book will be of interest to all those concerned with
the post-1945 economic and political history of Britain.
Most historical accounts of economic policy set out to describe the
way in which governments have attempted to solve their economic
problems and to achieve their economic objectives. Jim Tomlinson,
however, focuses on the problems themselves, arguing that the way
in which areas of economic policy become 'problems' for policy
makers is always problematic itself, that it is never obvious and
never happens 'naturally'. This approach is quite distinct from the
Marxist, the Keynesian or the neo-classical accounts of economic
policy, the schools of thought which are described and criticized
in the introduction. Subsequent chapters use the issues of
unemployment, the gold standard and problems of trade and Empire to
demonstrate that these competing accounts all obscure the true
complexities of the process. Because they adhere to simple
assumptions about the role of economic theory or of 'vested
interests' previous histories have been unable adequately to
explain the dramatic change after the First World War in attitudes
to unemployment, for instance, or the decision to return to gold in
1925. Jim Tomlinson surveys the institutional circumstances, the
conflicting political pressures and the theories offered at the
time in an attempt to discover the conditions which characterized
the questions as economic problems and contributed to the choice of
'solutions'. The result is a sophisticated and intellectually
compelling account of matters which have remained at the forefront
of political debate since its first publication in 1981.
Originally published in1985. Jim Tomlinson charters the route of
British macroeconomic policy in the post-war era. This book argues
that the objectives of macroeconomic policy have not been constant;
that the emphasis has shifted from one item to another over time;
and that this uncertainty and inconsistency over objectives goes a
long way to explaining why macroeconomics management has not been a
startling success.
The key aim of this new book is to show how economic decline has
always been a highly politicised concept, forming a central part of
post-war political argument. In doing so, Tomlinson reveals how the
term has been used in such ways as to advance particular political
causes.
It is widely recognized that Britains economic growth has slowed
drastically since the end of the Second World War. The 1950s are
often seen as the significant decade in this respect, when a strong
government could have checked economic decline in its earliest
stages. However, in 1964 Labour alleged that the Conservative
government had sorely failed to do just this and had led the nation
through thirteen wasted years. Many commentators have agreed with
this, yet until now such views have been subject to little serious
empirical scrutiny. This text responds to the need for a full
assessment of the Conservatives performance in this period. Drawing
upon a range of archival sources, Nick Tiratsoo and Jim Tomlinson
explore the different aspects of the efficiency question. Beginning
with the major issue of attempts in the 1950s to Americanize
British industry, the authors also discuss Conservative policy on
competition, education and training, investment and research and
development. This research reveals that the Conservatives were
informed about each of these issues, yet shrank from effective
reform. They were, rather, reduced to inertia by ideological
dilemmas, internal party antagoni
Jim Tomlinson's previous book of short stories, Things Kept,
Things Left Behind, won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award
and received enthusiastic reviews. The New York Times compared the
strong sense of place in Tomlinson's writing to that found in the
works of Flannery O'Connor and Alice Munro. The stories in his new
collection, Nothing Like An Ocean, also reflect Tomlinson's
awareness of place, revisiting the fictional town of Spivey, a
community in rural Appalachia where the characters confront
difficult circumstances and, with quiet dignity, try to do what is
right. In the title story, Tomlinson explores themes of forgiveness
and acceptance in the lives of two characters, Alton Wood, a high
school math teacher isolated by grief, and his sister Fran, who is
emotionally paralyzed by her part in a tragic death. The two take
halting steps back into the world after Alton receives an anonymous
invitation to a church singles dance. These themes also underlie
"Angel, His Rabbit, and Kyle McKell," which tells of Dempsie's
evening with two men -- her volatile boyfriend and the recently
returned Iraq War amputee whose secret she has been keeping. Loss
and the inevitability of change recur in Tomlinson's stories. In
"Overburden," Ben, a man simultaneously contemplating AARP
membership and impending fatherhood, travels with his wife, Sarah,
back to eastern Kentucky to visit the oak tree that was essential
to their courtship, only to find the site as barren and featureless
as the moon, a casualty of mountaintop removal mining. "So Exotic"
draws us into the worn environs of Rita's Huddle In Caf?, where the
owner becomes the confidant of Quilla, a mousy bank teller who
blossoms as the muse of an eccentric artist from Belarus. The
eleven stories in Nothing Like An Ocean evoke a strong sense of
small-town Kentucky life, finding humor in the residents' foibles
while never diminishing their inner lives. Tomlinson's masterful
fiction captures light and dark moments, moments that are foreign
yet deeply familiar, as his characters seek redemption and
sometimes find unexpected grace..
Available in paperback for the first time, this book is the third
in the three volume set The Labour governments 1964-1970 and
concentrates on Britain's economic policy under the Labour
governments in the 1960s. It assesses the origins, development and
outcomes of the attempts made by the 1964-1970 Labourgovernments
under Harold Wilson to modernise the British economy. This is the
first comprehensive and archivally-based work to offer a detailed
study of this modernisation project. The book places the project in
the context of Labour's economic ideas as they had developed since
the 1940s as well as the economic legacy they inherited from the
previous thirteen years of Conservative rule. After outlining this
context and providing a summary narrative of economic policy over
this period, the international aspect of Labour's approach to the
economy is analysed. The core of the book then goes on to look in
detail at the policies directly concerned with modernisation.
Following the agenda set by the national plan of 1965, policies on
planning, investment and the firm, technical change, the labour
market and the nationalised industries are all analysed. In
addition, the productivity campaign of the late 1960s is shown to
have encapsulated many of the underlying ideas but also many of the
problems of Labour's approach to economic policy. The final section
of the book asks how the pursuit of modernisation affected Labour's
pursuit of "social justice", before offering an overall assessment
of Labour's period of office. The book will be of special interest
to contemporary historians, economic historians and those
interested in the history of the Labour party. Together with the
other books in the series, on domestic policy and international
policy, it provides a complete picture of the development of
Britain under the premiership of Harold Wilson. -- .
Deindustrialisation is the central feature of Scotland's economic,
social and political history since the 1950s, when employment
levels peaked in the established sectors of coal, shipbuilding,
metals and textiles, along with the railways and docks. This book
moves analysis beyond outmoded tropes of economic decline and
industrial catastrophe, and instead examines the political economy
of deindustrialisation with a sharp eye on cultural and social
dimensions that were not uniformly negative, as often assumed.
Viewing the long-term process of deindustrialisation through a
moral economy framework, the book carefully reconstructs the impact
of economic change on social class, gender relations and political
allegiances, including a reawakened sense of Scottish national
identity. In doing so, it reveals deindustrialisation as a more
complex process than the customary body count of closures and job
losses suggests, and demonstrates that socioeconomic change did not
just happen, but was influenced by political agency.
Deindustrialisation is the central feature of Scotland's economic,
social and political history since the 1950s, when employment
levels peaked in the established sectors of coal, shipbuilding,
metals and textiles, along with the railways and docks. This book
moves analysis beyond outmoded tropes of economic decline and
industrial catastrophe, and instead examines the political economy
of deindustrialisation with a sharp eye on cultural and social
dimensions that were not uniformly negative, as often assumed.
Viewing the long-term process of deindustrialisation through a
moral economy framework, the book carefully reconstructs the impact
of economic change on social class, gender relations and political
allegiances, including a reawakened sense of Scottish national
identity. In doing so, it reveals deindustrialisation as a more
complex process than the customary body count of closures and job
losses suggests, and demonstrates that socioeconomic change did not
just happen, but was influenced by political agency.
A survey of governmental industrial policy in Britain from 1900 to 1990, revealing both the macroeconomic context of such policy and the microeconomic effects. Dr Tomlinson is a reputable scholar of government policy over this period, and this book illuminates both the formation of policy, and the capacity of each government to fulfil its aims.
This comprehensive new study gives a full account of the
formulation of British economic policy in the twentieth century,
drawing on the most recent research based on documents made
available under the thirty-year rule to give detailed insight into
policy-making in the 1950s and bringing the narrative right up to
the end of the 1980s. The book offers both a lucid narrative
description of the evolution of policy from the turn of the century
through the First World War, recovery, the Depression, the Second
War and its aftermath, the `Keynesian Revolution', and the shifts
and about-turns of more recent decades, and a coherent analysis of
these processes. Covering both macro and micro issues, the text is
structured in such a way as to give due weight to all the various
influences at work: institutional aspects, such as the changing
role of policy-making ministries, as well as political debate and
economic theory.
This major new addition to Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History analyzes the economic policies of the Attlee Government, incorporating already published literature and much new research. It integrates the politics of economic policy-making with the economic arguments. It stresses the importance of the government's drive for efficiency, and strongly questions the claim that in building a "welfare state" the government neglected production. It is the first comprehensive account of the Attlee government's economic policies.
This major study analyses the economic policies of the Attlee
government, both international and domestic, in the light of
Labour's issues and doctrines about the economy. Jim Tomlinson
highlights the concern of the government with issues of industrial
efficiency, and how this concern pervaded all areas of economic
policy. He focuses on the economic aspects of the creation of the
welfare state, and how efficiency concerns led to a great deal of
austerity in the design of welfare provision. In addition,
Tomlinson offers detailed discussion of the labour market in this
period, both the attempts to 'plan' that market and the tensions in
the policies created by attempts to attract more women into paid
work. Students, professional historians and even politicians will
greatly benefit from this broad-based reappraisal of a crucial era.
The stories in ""Things Kept, Things Left Behind"" explore the
ambiguities of kept secrets, the tangles of abandoned pasts, and
uneasy accommodations. Jim Tomlinson's characters each face the
desire to reclaim dreams left behind, along with something of the
dreamer that was also lost. Starkly rendered, these spiraling
characters inhabit a specific place and class - small-town
Kentucky, working-class America - but the stories, told in all
their humor and tragedy, are universal. In each story, the
characters face conflict, sometimes within themselves, sometimes
with each other. Each carries a past and with it an urge to return
and repair. In ""First Husband, First Wife,"" ex-spouses are
repeatedly drawn together by a shared history they cannot seem to
escape, and they are finally forced to choose between leaving the
past or leaving each other. LeAnn and Cass are grown sisters who
conspire to help their prideful mother in ""Things Kept.""
""Prologue"" is a voyeuristic journey through the surprisingly
different lives of two star-crossed friends, each with its
successes and pitfalls, told through their letters over thirty-five
years. In ""Stainless,"" Annie and Warren divide their possessions
on the final night of their marriage. Their realtor has advised
them to ""declutter"" the house they are leaving, but they discover
that most of the clutter cannot be so easily removed. The choices
are never simple, and for every thing kept, something must be
abandoned. Tomlinson's characters struggle but eventually find
their way, often unknowingly, to points of departure, to places
where things just might change.
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