Two months after Germany surrendered, Britain always different, and always uncertain. The past is held a general election. “And now win the peace,” less so. Considering the lessons of history can help exhorted the Labour Party, which promised massive business leaders and policy makers figure out how social and economic change. The words struck to manage the challenging years ahead. a chord and Labour won big, sweeping Winston Churchill out of leadership. With that in mind, we looked specifically at the post– World War II era—a time when much of the world Western Europe, Japan, and the United States did rose, quite literally, from the ashes. Not everywhere, win the peace, enjoying more than two decades of of course, or to the same degree. Indeed, many broad-based economic growth that not only raised countries would not want to revisit the decades living standards and brought a better quality of life after the war. Eastern Europe went behind the to their citizens but also helped to fuel global growth iron curtain; China suffered civil war, starvation, (Exhibits 1 and 2). and the Cultural Revolution; much of Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East was unstable and As the world considers how to navigate the post- wracked by conflict (although there were bright COVID-19 future, the only certainty is that it will be spots in these regions, too). So the following different, or as we wrote in a prior article, “the future discussion draws chiefly on the experience of Japan, is not what it used to be.” But then, the future is the United States, and Western Europe, which Web <2020> Exhibit 1 Exhibit <1> of <6> Economic growth was strong from 1945 to 1970 in Western Europe, North Economic growth was strong from 1945 to 1970 in Western Europe, North America, an apan America, and Japan. GDP, constant 1990 $ trillion Western Europe North America1 apan2 4 4 4 ‡ ‡ ‡ 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 194 190 19‰0 194 190 19‰0 194 190 19‰0 5 5 –2 4 9 10 AG, ˆ AG, ˆ AG, ˆ 1Canada and United States. 2Data unavailable for 1941–49, and so GDP as estiated usin 1940–0 coound annual rot rate C­G€‚. Sourceƒ „addison Pro…ect Database 2010‚, Universit† of Groninen 114 What now? Ten actions to emerge stronger in the next normal September 2020