Revisiting the mature economy: Britain, 1860–1939

[Book review] RODERICK FLOUD and PAUL JOHNSON (Eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Volume 2: Economic Maturity, 1860–1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 xix + 552 pp, h/back ISBN 0 521 82037 5 (£70.00), p/back ISBN 0 521 52737 6 (£24.99) This third edition of the Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain has a fine pedigree: by providing an authoritative guide to recent mainstream research, previous editions have enabled teachers and students to keep abreast of developments in the discipline. For the third edition Roderick Floud stays in place, while Paul Johnson replaces Deirdre McCloskey as co-editor. The new Volume 2 keeps to the same periodization as the previous edition, but is considerably longer, produced in larger format and with an extra 75 pages of substantive text. This accommodates two additional chapters, although the organization of the new volume has been considerably changed from the previous edition.