New Books in Economics

Robert Yee, "The City's Defense: The Bank of England and the Remaking of Economic Governance, 1914-1939" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Published: January 30, 2026

Duration: 36:35

In The City's Defense: The Bank of England and the Remaking of Economic Governance, 1914-1939, Robert Yee examines how the City of London maintained its status as an international financial center. He traces the role of the Bank of England in restructuring the domestic, imperial, European, and international monetary systems in the aftermath of the First World War

Responding to mass unemployment and volatile exchange rates, the Bank expanded its reach into areas outside the traditional scope of central banking, including industrial policy and foreign affairs. It designed a system of economic governance that reinforced the preeminence...