"Economic Ideas and Government Policy" sketches the more important economic developments from the end of World War II to the early 1980s. Sir Alec Cairncross, an economist who participated in many of the events described, covers economic development in the immediate postwar period, such as the role of economists in war-time government of Britain. He examines the Sterling crisis and devaluation during the 1906s and 1970s. "Economic Ideas and Government Policy" examines the wider view and long-term issues involved in post-1945 economics, including a review of some of the economic ideas that have influenced the British government since the war.