Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through - The surprising story of Britain's economy from boom to bust and back again

A pick for The Economist Books of the Year 2021

The UK is, at the same time, both one of the world''s most successful economies and one of Europe''s laggards. The country contains some of Western Europe''s richest areas such as the south east of England, but also some of its poorest such as the north east or Wales. It''s really not much of an exaggeration to describe the UK, in economic terms, as ''Portugal but with Singapore in the bottom corner''. Looking into the past helps understand why.

Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through tells the story of how Britain''s economy and politics have interacted with each other from the time of the Industrial Revolution right up to the pandemic of 2020. A few politicians, such as Peel, Gladstone, Attlee and Thatcher have managed to shape the economy but far more have been shaped by it. Depressing little in British economic debate is really new. This time is rarely, if ever, really different. The debates about t