Crafts, Nicholas, 1949-2023

Nick Crafts was the most distinguished British economic historian of his generation. This memoir outlines his many contributions to economic history. His most influential work was his radical reinterpretation of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, which marked the world’s first transition to modern economic growth, thus lying at the heart of global economic history. Crafts followed this up with a sustained study of the performance of the British economy from the late 19th century to the present, which he later used to establish an unrivalled reputation for historically-informed policy advice as founding director of a research institute on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) at the University of Warwick. He also placed the British experience within a wider European context and published ground-breaking studies of the roles of technological change and of geography in economic growth. Over 50 years of energetic teaching and research, Crafts reshaped British economic history and had a huge influence on generations of economic historians.

Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 21