Provides a clear view of the continuities and changes that occurred in the economic history of Britain from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the Festival of Britain in 1951. This book stresses modernity and the growth of various patterns of consumption in areas such as the service sector and the leisure industry.

1. Introduction ; PART I ; The Anatomy of the British Economy ; 2. Aristocrats, agriculture and the land ; 3. Industrialists and the urban economy ; 4. The service economy ; 5. The growth of the British economy ; PART II ; Globalization and Deglobalization ; 6. Free trade and protectionism ; 7. Capital exports ; 8. The rise and demise of the gold standard ; 9. Rebuilding the international economic order? ; PART III ; Poverty, Prosperity and Population ; 10. Births and marriages ; 11. Deaths and disease ; 12. Rich and poor ; 13. Cultures of consumption ; PART IV ; Public Policy and the State ; 14. Taxing and spending ; 15. Education ; 16. From the poor law to the Liberal social reforms ; 17. War, reconstruction and depression ; 18. Building a new Jerusalem

Incorporates economic and political history, making the book accessible to non-economists Looks at the social experience of living in an age of rising and falling prices Places the British economy in a global setting

Martin Daunton is Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and President of the Royal Historical Society. He was formerly Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College. He has written extensively on British history since 1700, especially on urban history and economic and social policy, and is the author of Progress and Poverty, which covers the period from 1700 to 1851 and is also published by Oxford University Press.

Incorporates economic and political history, making the book accessible to non-economists Looks at the social experience of living in an age of rising and falling prices Places the British economy in a global setting