Problems of British Economic Policy, 1870-1945

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-c...