This book is the first to examine all aspects of the crisis together and in depth using an extensive range of official, institutional and personal papers. It demonstrates that a proper understanding of economic and imperial policies requires a sophisticated grasp of political processes. It shows how explanation of British political change must proceed by placing the power elites in their specific contexts, by exposing their beliefs, fears, objectives and strategies, and by displaying their interactions. The Treasury, the Bank of England, big business, the TUC and Keynes, as well as MacDonald, Baldwin, Lloyd George, Churchill, Mosley and Chamberlain are seen tackling some of the most fundamental problems of the modern British state.