Answer to Question #107276 in History for Tom

Question

Does David edgerton support the scholarly interpretation that the social welfare state was the main focus of policy makers in wartime and post-war britain?

Answer 1

Yes. Through his intensive research David Edegerton outlines how a British nation was constructed after 1945, emerging out of the British Empire and the global, free trade economy which had been constructed during the 19th century. By contrast, the British nation rejected imperialism and cosmopolitanism. Like most of its continental neighbours at the same time, post-1945 Britain adopted industrial protectionism, encouraged agricultural self-sufficiency, and promoted growth and modernization through a developmental state. It built a National Health Service and ran 'nationalized' industries such as British Rail or British Steel. The mines were publicly owned and run by a National Coal Board. From the early 1960s this post-imperial nation, initially concerned to protect its interests in the world via a large and powerful military, complete with state-of-the-art aircraft and an independent nuclear deterrent, reduced its defence budget and increased investment in welfare and education. By the 1970s it had become a social-democratic state.