Editing Harold Macmillan (section)

===Member of Parliament (1931–1939)===
Macmillan spent the 1930s on the backbenches. In March 1932 he published "The State and Industry" (not to be confused with his earlier pamphlet "Industry and the State").{{sfn|Horne|1988|p=103}} In September 1932 he made his first visit to the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Horne|1988|p=100}} Macmillan also published "The Next Step". He advocated cheap money and [[economic planning|state direction of investment]]. In 1933 he was the sole author of "Reconstruction: A Plea for a National Unity". In 1935 he was one of 15 MPs to write "Planning for Employment". His next publication, "The Next Five Years", was overshadowed by Lloyd George's proposed "New Deal" in 1935.{{sfn|Horne|1988|p=103}} Macmillan Press also published the work of the economist [[John Maynard Keynes]].{{sfn|Campbell|2010|p=246}}

Macmillan resigned the government whip (but not the Conservative party one) in protest at the lifting of sanctions on Italy after her [[Italian conquest of Abyssinia|conquest of Abyssinia]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Betts|first=Lewis David|date=3 April 2018|title=Harold Macmillan and appeasement: implications for the future study of Macmillan as a foreign policy actor|journal=Contemporary British History|volume=32|issue=2|pages=169–189|doi=10.1080/13619462.2017.1401475|s2cid=148757056|issn=1361-9462}}</ref> [[Henry Channon|"Chips" Channon]] described him as the "unprepossessing, bookish, eccentric member for Stockton-on-Tees" and recorded (8 July 1936) that he had been sent a "frigid note" by Conservative Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]]. Baldwin later mentioned that he had survived by steering a middle course between Macmillan and [[John Gretton]], an extreme right-winger.{{sfn|Campbell|2010|p=249}}

The Next Five Years Group, to which Macmillan had belonged, was wound up in November 1937. His book ''The Middle Way'' appeared in June 1938, advocating a broadly centrist political philosophy both domestically and internationally. Macmillan took control of the magazine ''New Outlook'' and made sure it published political tracts rather than purely theoretical work.{{sfn|Horne|1988|p=103}}

In 1936, Macmillan proposed the creation of a cross-party forum of antifascists to create democratic unity but his ideas were rejected by the leadership of both the Labour and Conservative parties.<ref>Seidman, Michael. Transatlantic Antifascisms: From the Spanish Civil War to the End of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 89</ref>

Macmillan supported Chamberlain's first flight for talks with [[Hitler]] at Berchtesgaden, but not his subsequent flights to Bad Godesberg and Munich. After [[Munich Agreement|Munich]] he was looking for a "1931 in reverse", i.e. a Labour-dominated coalition in which some Conservatives would serve, the reverse of the Conservative-dominated coalition which had governed Britain since 1931.{{sfn|Horne|1988|pp=117–118}} He supported the independent candidate, [[Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker|Lindsay]], at the [[1938 Oxford by-election]]. He wrote a pamphlet "The Price of Peace" calling for alliance between Britain, France and the USSR, but expecting Poland to make territorial "accommodation" to Germany (i.e. give up the [[Danzig corridor]]). In "Economic Aspects of Defence", early in 1939, he called for a Ministry of Supply.{{sfn|Horne|1988|p=119}}