This book provides a comprehensive account of the achievements of the economic regions set up in France after the First World War. It identifies exactly how they operated, as well as critical success factors such as effective leadership. Some recent historians have taken a very negative view of the part played by these regions in economic development. This new study instead argues that they made a significant contribution and laid the foundations for the regions created in France after 1945. The key areas which they identified: transport, power generation, and technical education, have remained the preoccupations of regional governments in France and elsewhere to this day. The author covers the needs of commerce and industry, but also agriculture and tourism. Based on fresh research using a wide range of primary sources, this book will appeal to economic historians, economists, and geographers, as well as historians with a particular interest in France.

Terence Cudbird gained his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2020 and is an Associate Member of the History Faculty there. He published an article on the French regions in French History in 2023.