The IMF Crisis of 1976 and British Politics

The 1976 IMF crisis was a seminal event in modern British political and economic history. The seeds of the crisis were sown by the huge OPEC oil price shocks of 1972-3 leading to the potential meltdown of Britain's already weakened economy and seemingly confirming Britain's headlong decline as a major political and economic power. The government was seen as going 'cap in hand' to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to head off disaster - an image which became a long-lasting political icon. Kevin Hickson has mined vital original source material, including interviews with leading players, to probe government economic thought and practice. He questions much received wisdom, especially that the crisis caused a basic shift to monetarist orthodoxy and right-wing economic liberalism - commonly known as 'Thatcherism' - and embraced by successive governments including New Labour.

ISBN 1850437254   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9781850437253 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 445 Publisher I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd   Published in London Imprint I.B.Tauris   Series ISSN 3 Format Hardback   Series title International Library of Political Studies Publication date 25 Feb 2005   Height (mm) 234 Library of Congress 2005274963   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 332.4941   Spine width (mm) 25 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Undergraduate, Professional / Scholarly Pages 252

1		Introduction		1
2		The postwar consensus		17
3		Background to the 1976 IMF crisis		47
4		Politics and economic policy : March-September 1976		73
5		Politics and economic policy : October 1976-January 1977		115
6		Economic analysis		161
7		Discussion		195
8		Conclusion		221

TLS, 29th April 2005. Review by Mark Garnett: "The most commendable feature of this book is Hickson's attempt to explain the interaction between ideas, personalities and events".

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