When the first volume of this work was published, The Times welcomed the book and the project in these words: Here - almost for the first time - we have a picture of normal society in a past age in the same fullness of detail as we can picture our own age. It is the beginning of what we have never had before, a history of the English people. With this third volume, Professor Clapham completes the work, bringing the story down to 1929. Particular topics dealt with include the place and development of agriculture in the industrial state; rapid changes and new growths in industry; the spread of the ideas of limited liability; amalgamation and co-operation; changes in commercial organisation; communications, including road transport, air development, the Post Office and wireless; and the economic activities of the state.