The Retreat from 'High Technology' in Post-War Britain.

This article examines the significant shift in the British state's approach to civil technological projects during the 1970s, focusing on supersonic aviation and nuclear power as key examples of post-war techno-nationalist investment. It argues that Whitehall, particularly the Treasury, grew increasingly skeptical of state-led research and development, leading to the effective cancellation or scaling back of major programmes like Concorde and the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR), well before the rise of Thatcherism. The article challenges prevailing narratives that attribute the 1970s' technological disillusionment to external ideological forces such as the New Left or environmentalists, instead highlighting internal expert debates centered on economic and industrial concerns. It also situates this retreat within a broader political context of economic liberalism emerging from within the state, rather than a neo-liberal revolution imposed from outside, thereby reshaping understandings of post-war British history and techno-nationalism.