free market policies offered the most effective solution to raising the standard of living of the entire population (Clapham belonged to this latter persuasion). From the end of World War II through the 1970s many economic historians came to believe that the use of economic theory and statistical analysis made them neutral social scientists who offered objective explanations of economic history. Despite their claims of objectivity, the more quantitative and theoretically informed economic history of the post-World War II period was also heavily influenced by contemporary concerns. Chief among these was the breakup of the colonial empires and a Cold War interest in promoting economic growth in the underdeveloped world. Thus, how and why national incomes grow became a prime concern. Dean and Cole’s statistical account of British economic growth demonstrated that an increased rate of growth in a developing economy could lead to a into sustained “take-off” economic growth. The concept of an economic was brought into the historiography of “takeoff” the industrial revolution in 1954 by W.W. Rostow, and later popularized in his The Stages of (1960). Dean and Cole’s book offers statistical Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto data and analyzes long tern trends and structural changes in the British national economy. After briefly discussing the main variables—population, the value of money, wages, and the international balance of payments—the authors go on to set out the quantitative date in a series of substantial statistical studies on such topics as the relation between industrialization and population change, the growth of occupations, industries and incomes, long term trends in national income and its composition, and changes in capital accumulation. Their key conclusions on national economic growth were that there was a long and slow build up of economic growth before the 1740s, of about 0.3% per annum, a modest increase in growth to 0.9% from 1745 to 1760, which was at first offset by rapid population growth, but quickened to 1.8% in the 1780s and outstripped population growth, producing sustained growth, which accelerated to growth of about 5% per annum from the 1820s to 1850. These conclusion provided quantitative support for the earlier and classical view that the industrial revolution should be chiefly association with the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Phyllis Deane subsequently published a popular introductory survey, (1962), which was a widely used textbook on the subject The First Industrial Revolution in universities into the early 1980s.
free market policies offered the most effective solution to raising the standard of living of the entire population (Clapham belonged to this latter persuasion). From the end of World War II through the 1970s many economic historians came to believe that the use of economic theory and statistical analysis made them neutral social scientists who offered objective explanations of economic history. Despite their claims of objectivity, the more quantitative and theoretically informed economic history of the post-World War II period was also heavily influenced by contemporary concerns. Chief among these was the breakup of the colonial empires and a Cold War interest in promoting economic growth in the underdeveloped world. Thus, how and why national incomes grow became a prime concern. Dean and Cole’s statistical account of British economic growth demonstrated that an increased rate of growth in a developing economy could lead to a “take-off” into sustained economic growth. The concept of an economic “takeoff” was brought into the historiography of the industrial revolution in 1954 by W.W. Rostow, and later popularized in his The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960). Dean and Cole’s book offers statistical data and analyzes long tern trends and structural changes in the British national economy. After briefly discussing the main variables—population, the value of money, wages, and the international balance of payments—the authors go on to set out the quantitative date in a series of substantial statistical studies on such topics as the relation between industrialization and population change, the growth of occupations, industries and incomes, long term trends in national income and its composition, and changes in capital accumulation. Their key conclusions on national economic growth were that there was a long and slow build up of economic growth before the 1740s, of about 0.3% per annum, a modest increase in growth to 0.9% from 1745 to 1760, which was at first offset by rapid population growth, but quickened to 1.8% in the 1780s and outstripped population growth, producing sustained growth, which accelerated to growth of about 5% per annum from the 1820s to 1850. These conclusion provided quantitative support for the earlier and classical view that the industrial revolution should be chiefly association with the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Phyllis Deane subsequently published a popular introductory survey, The First Industrial Revolution (1962), which was a widely used textbook on the subject in universities into the early 1980s.
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