An Industrialist In The Treasury: The Postwar Years

The failed Labour Party effort to plan the British economy, the collapse of a Tory proposal to plunge into convertibility with a floating pound, the long haul to bring about the first devaluation of sterling, recovery under the Marshall Plan and the setbacks caused by the Korean War and rearmament, and the British rejection of the Schuman Plan: these are among the high points of these memoirs of 1947 to 1952 by Lord Plowden, who began the period as Chief Planner. Basically a spare, authoritative account, it has a few excellent stories and personality sketches, not least of Sir Stafford Cripps and Ernest Bevin.