Review

Author(s): Walter Kendall

Review by: Walter Kendall
Source: The Economic History Review, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Aug., 1971), p. 495
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Economic History Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2594074
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 REVIEWS 495

railways: to use the existing output of transportation and its pattern by product and by
region as the only material for a calculation of social saving is to make at the outset the
assumption that the economy was capable of no adjustment at all. In short, the book
cannot make its central point with the tools it uses.
These strictures do not detract from the importance of the book. Whether the main
argument is correct or not, it is still a big book in more than mere number of pages. Any
serious student of the economic history of the English railway or of the many related his-
tories in nineteenth-century England will need to begin with this book. It will amply
repay his close study.

University of Chicago DONALD N. MCCLOSKEY

ANTHONY MASON. The General Strike in the North East. (Hull: University of Hull Publica-
tions. Occasional Papers in Economic and Social History No. 3. 1970. PP. Vi +
i i6. Ill. f2.)

In 1926, Lenin Terrace, in the Durham mining village of Chopwell, received its first
tenants and in his account Mr Mason pays proper attention to the importance of
"Little Moscow" and not least William, now Sir William, Lawther in imparting a
radical tinge to the conduct of the General Strike on the north-east coast.
The essential outlines of the strike itself are well known and Mr Mason's regional
study does not point to the need for any major reappraisal. Nevertheless his account of
the "soldiers' war" at the base fills a gap. When one considers that in 1926 the Labour
Research Department dispatched a questionnaire to all trades councils and Labour
Parties regarding their activities in the General Strike and was able to publish the
replies, with a commentary, before the end of the year, the subsequent neglect of the
subject by professional historians seems surprising. One hopes that Mr Mason's re-
search will encourage fresh studies of this type elsewhere.
The fascinating extracts of correspondence by Lord Londonderry's agent make one
regret that Mr Mason's endeavour to obtain access to employers' archives has not met
with greater success. The political forces at work in the strike also merit further atten-
tion. Robin Page Arnot, dispatched to the north-east by the Communist Party execu-
tive, played, as Mr Mason clearly indicates, an important role in some of these events.
A more direct appraisal of the party's influence would have been welcome.
A number of individual veterans from both sides of the barricades still remain. In
the north-east at least isolated endeavours have been made to preserve their still vivid
impressions on tape. Historians might well consider paying this matter further attention
before the last of the old soldiers finally fade away.

Nuffield College, Oxford WALTER KENDALL

D. H. ALDCROFT. The Inter- War Economy: Britain, 1919-1939. (London: B. T. Batsford.

1970. PP. 441. Tables. f4a20.)

This is a convenient analysis of economic performance in Britain between the wars,

looking at performance in relation to the main policy objectives that we should now
take for granted. Thus there are chapters on growth, fluctuations, regional policy, in-
come distribution, the external balance, and management of the economy, all designed
to bring out the broad changes in progress over the period. There are also three chapters

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