Many years ago I became convinced of the need for a comprehensive study of interwar unemployment which discussed within a single volume those relevant themes of public policy which were otherwise scattered amongst a wide variety of related studies. The dominant place which the subject held and still holds in the historiography of British economic and social change since 1919 has, of course, already spawned a considerable volume of literature on unemployment policy, strictly defined. In addition, detailed accounts of interwar industry, money and banking, fiscal policy, collective bargaining, trade and imperialism have provided constant reminders of the symbiotic links between their subject matter and unemployment, however incidental to their principal theme.

This wealth of material, however, poses its own difficulties. None of the general surveys of unemployment policy, apart from text books, covers the interwar period as a whole. Where the chronological treatment is reasonably satisfactory, the focus of attention tends to be on particular aspects of the problem, such as national insurance or the depressed areas. Moreover, to appreciate fully the substance and range of contemporary industrial, financial and academic opinion bearing upon interwar unemployment or its connection with macro- and microeconomic development in general, it is still necessary to refer to an increasingly large number of specialized monographs.