Unemployment in Britain Between the Wars

Drawing on a range of contemporary evidence, Stephen Constantine studies the nature and causes of unemployment in Britain during the 1920s and 1930s, and analyzes the failure of successive inter-war governments to make a constructive response.

Stephen Constantine

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii Part One: The Background 1 THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 1 2 ECONOMIC CAUSES 5 Cyclical unemployment 6 Structural unemployment 9 Part Two: The Effects of Economic Depression 3 SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES 17 The geography of unemployment and migration 17 Who were the unemployed? 22 Poverty 25 Health 30 Morale 36 4 UNEMPLOYMENT POLICIES 45 1920-1925 46 1925-1931 57 1931-1939 67 Part Three: Assessment 77 Part Four: Documents 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 INDEX