Overview

The British economy altered radically between 1934 and 1947. Some of the most dramatic changes were in Wales as its struggling private-sector-led economy was supplanted by one dominated by the state. Initial changes were barely noticeable as pre-war rearmament had little impact on its economy and labour market yet wartime demands for munitions and raw materials prompted the state to govern an all-encompassing mobilisation that upended its relations with business and eliminated unemployment. New factories employed many thousands of people, agriculture was modernised and metal manufacturing thrived, although coal mining remained mired in crisis. As the war ended, lessons learnt during the conflict helped guide the government as it reconverted the economy to peacetime while retaining a dominant role. This book is the first to fully set out and explore these linkages in Wales between government planning, workplaces and their employees.

Full Product Details

9781837722709

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Reviews

""Utilising a wide range of archival and published sources, Gooberman produces a masterful, highly detailed and well-researched account of the Welsh experience of Churchill's 'fearsome array' of uneven and constantly developing governance structures, showing how rearmament, wartime and reconversion helped transform Wales, from a male-dominated resource-driven economy suffering high levels of unemployment in the 1930s, to a fully employed state-sponsored secondary manufacturing economy employing many women in the post-war decades.""-- ""emeritus professor Trevor Boyns, Cardiff University""

Author Information

Leon Gooberman is Reader in Employment Relations at Cardiff University Business School.

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