Shipbuilding as Depression-era industrial policy

Rather than erase the 1929 crash, the scenario assumes that governments adopt more active economic policy. Housing and infrastructure can employ large numbers, while warship construction sustains skilled, technology-heavy industry and shipyard communities. The Town-class cruiser program provides a concrete example: orders went to yards near poorer constituencies so naval spending could support local employment. The political premise replaces Ramsay MacDonald and Herbert Hoover with Stanley Baldwin and Al Smith, leaders considered more willing to fund construction for employment and security. The counterfactual changes policy and leadership while preserving the economic shock that constrained the historical choices.