Waging War and Building Peace - by Leon Gooberman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The war that changed everything: how government-led industry reshaped Wales' future.

Between 1934 and 1947, Wales underwent a dramatic economic transformation. Once reliant on a struggling private sector, the nation saw its industries reorganized under government control as wartime demands reshaped the economy. Waging War and Building Peace is the first in-depth study of this period, outlining how state-led industrial mobilization eliminated unemployment, modernized agriculture, and expanded manufacturing while coal mining remained in crisis.

Leon Gooberman studies how wartime policies not only fueled production but also laid the groundwork for post-war economic planning, ensuring the state retained a dominant role even after the fighting ceased. This book traces the profound shifts that redefined industry, labor, and governance in Wales: from factory floors to government offices, offering a new perspective on a pivotal moment in the nation's economic history.

Review Quotes

"Utilising a wide range of archival and published sources, Gooberman produces a masterful, highly detailed and well-researched account of the Welsh experience of Churchill's 'fearsome array' of uneven and constantly developing governance structures, showing how rearmament, wartime and reconversion helped transform Wales, from a male-dominated resource-driven economy suffering high levels of unemployment in the 1930s, to a fully employed state-sponsored secondary manufacturing economy employing many women in the post-war decades."-- "emeritus professor Trevor Boyns, Cardiff University"

About the Author

Leon Gooberman is a reader in employment relations and business history at Cardiff Business School.