Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The surprising story of Britain's economy from boom to bust and back again

Product Information

During the high years of British imperialism, (1870) only 25% of exports went to the empire, and by 1900 only to 30%. A central theme to the book is how the role and shape of the state has changed and adapted over time - not often for purely ‘ideological’ reasons, but more in response to economic developments and challenges, as well as the need to cope with huge global events (WW1 and WW2 loom large). It was conceived by Charles Lindblom in two key articles (Lindblom Public Adm Rev 19: 79–88, 1959; Public Adm Rev 39: 517–526, 1979), and it has influenced the management literature in several ways.

Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through by Duncan Weldon review

In the growth period, between 1815 and 1850, where there were high levels of debt to fund our war, the debt to GDP ratio feel only because of high GDP. The author asserts that path dependency, the route taken to arrive somewhere, is just as important as the destination.I just wouldn't recommend this to newbies to economics like myself - I was after the general gist which this wasn't. Nonetheless, after hearing an interview with him on Patrick Wyman's podcast, Tides of History, I figured I'd give his book a shot. Gone were the days when free trade, the gold standard and balanced budgets were crucial to the flourishing economy and, as the author points out, politicians didn’t meddle.

Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through by Duncan Weldon Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through by Duncan Weldon

At the same time businesses are grappling with the fallout from Brexit in the form of significant new barriers to trade, leading to empty shelves and staff shortages.

As part of The Economy 2030 Inquiry, the Resolution Foundation is hosting a book launch for Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The Surprising Story of the British Economy by Duncan Weldon.

Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through | Book reviews | SPE

For all the popular history published about, say, Anne Boleyn's third cousin thrice-removed, books that outline the fundamental forces of British history - the tectonic economic changes beyond any individual's or even government's control - are surprisingly rare. A book that tells the story of Britain’s economic history over the past 200 years could hardly be more timely. The book has a few themes throughout the narrative - the importance of path dependence, the benefits of specialisation at various points (like the decline of agriculture during the World Wars that allowed Britain to focus on manufacturing and financial support for the Allies) or the impact of political decisions on economic reality (like the allocation of costs in things like the Corn Laws, the influence of the growth of home ownership on interest rate decisions etc). Packed with useful statistics from the last two centuries, it ends in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic with the UK beginning to emerge from the chaos of the successive lockdowns. It's fair to say that Weldon succeeds in answering it with his pacy, vivid canter through the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars, post-war decline and resurgence in the 1980s, right up to the current crisis.A useful book to remind you of the ups and down of the UK economy since the Industrial Revolution and why certain events happened, however, I don't think it fully addresses the statement in the title that that Britain just "muddles through". You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Britain was the premier financial centre of the world in the late Victorian world, declined during the war years (1914 – 1970), and them boomed again between 1980 and the 2008.