Originally published in 1960, The Ministry of Labour and National Service, although by no means amongst the oldest Departments of State, was certainly amongst the most important at the time. During the second world war it achieved remarkable success in mobilizing the country’s men and women to a higher degree than in any other country, and to a far higher degree than in Germany. When peace came, the Ministry demobilized both the armed forces and extra industrial workers smoothly and without disrupting the nation’s economy.

In peacetime too the Ministry was essential to the country in providing an industrial relations service, in maintaining full employment, in the development of industry, the provision of employment offices to promote the placing and mobility of labour, the running of training schemes for people with disabilities, in contributing to the work of the International Labour Office; in all these ways and in many others the Ministry played its part in the working and development of our society.

Sir Godfrey Ince describes all these facets of the Ministry’s work against an historical background of its development. Permanent Secretary to the Ministry from 1944–1956, he led the Department through its most difficult period and set it on its present course. He writes freely and with the authority and knowledge that come only from first-and experience and responsibility. Today it can be read in its historical context.