Robert Millward is Professor of Economic History at the University of Manchester. His previous publications include Public and Private Ownership of British Industry 1820-1990 (1994) and The Political Economy of Nationalism in Britain 1920-50 (1995).

Part I. Introduction: 1. Ideology, technology and economic policy; Part II. The Construction of the New European Infrastructure c. 1830-1914: 2. Infrastructure development and rights of way in the early nineteenth century; 3. Local supply networks, private concessions and municipalisation; 4. Railways and telegraph: economic growth and national unification; 5. Electricity supply, tramways and new regulatory regimes c. 1870-1914; Part III. Nations and Networks 1914-45: 6. Infrastructure development from the nineteenth to the twentieth century: an overall perspective; 7. The development of telecommunications; 8. Network integration in electricity supply: successes and failures; 9. Railway finances and road-rail competition; Part IV. State Enterprise 1945-90: 10. The new state, economic organisation and planning; 11. Coal, oil and security; 12. Airline regulation and the transport revolution; 13. Telecommunications: from calm to storm; 14. Economic policy, financial accountability and productivity growth; Part V. Conclusions: 15. The road to privatisation and de-regulation?