The Welfare State [antikvár]

preface The Welfare State is a sequel to my Social and Economic History of Britain from 1760 to the Present Day, recounting in more detail than was possible in the final chapters of that book the social and economic history of Britain since 1945. The Welfare State I take to be the whole of the present socio-political-economic organization, and not merely the welfare services provided by the State. As other ages have been described as mercantilistic, or laissez-faire, or feudal, or aristocratic, so it seems appropriate to name the present age by its chief characteristic. I always hoped that the Social and Economic History would serve as a practical introduction to the original sources, and commended to the reader the nineteenth-century Blue Books, which, as I said, are so much more exciting than is commonly supposed by those who have never read them. In this book I have again leaned heavily upon what are called the 'official sources': no student of contemporary affairs could fail to do so, and I render cordial thanks to all the anonymous, as well as the named, writers of Government Reports and compilers of official statistics. As before, I would commend the reader to go to these sources himself, and I hope that what he will see of them in these pages will encourage him to do so. Unlike the nineteenth-century Blue Books, he will find them readily obtainable in newsagents and bookshops or at Her Majesty's Stationery Office. He will also find that their cost is low. He will be rewarded by finding himself free of a whole world of information, ranging from statistical summaries of the economy (far more intelligible than the layman generally believes), through Annual Reports of Government Departments and nationalized industries, to particularized statements or Reports on subjects of immediate interest. The Bibliography names a selection of these official documents, and the Appendices reproduce some of their statistics. For permission to use these tables, for other references in the text, and for permission to quote from two of Winston Churchill's War-time Notes to the Cabinet I am indebted to the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. I am grateful also to The Times for permission to reproduce in the Appendices the diagram "Planning for Growth in the British Economy", to the Advertising Association for figures of advertising expenditure in Table B, XVIII, of the Appendices, to Faber and Faber, Ltd, for permission to quote from W. H. Auden's dedication in Nones, to Frederick Muller, Ltd, for permission to quote from Hugh Dalton's Memoirs, to Cassell and Co., Ltd, for permission to use extracts from Winston Churchill's Second World War, and to the Royal Norwegian