March 31 Interwar Britain
I. the economy
growth years: 1919-20, 1924-29, 1934-37, 1939
slumps and crises: 1920-24, 1930-34, 1937-38
Unemployment Insurance Acts (1920, 1922)
1921-1930 average unemployment: 10-12%
II. politics
A. the rise of Labour and the decline of the Liberals
| Liberal MPs | Labour MPs | |
| 1910 | 275 | 40 |
| 1924 | 40 | 151 |
Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937)
ministries: 1922, 1929-31
B. the ascendant Tories
Stanley Baldwin
ministries: 1923-24, 1924-29, 1935-37
Increase in efficiency of coal production,
| Germany | 112% |
| the Netherlands | 81% |
| Great Britain | 28% |
British coal exports
| 1913 | 73 million tons |
| 1921 | 25 million tons |
General Strike of 1926
Trade Disputes Act (1927)
III. the Great Depression
Unemployment| June 1929 | 1,200,000 |
| March 1930 | 1,600,000 |
| December 1930 | 2,500,000 |
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
the National Government
IV. British culture between the wars
Aldous Huxley
Virginia Woolf
James Joyce
George Orwell
