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The Economic Consequences of the Peace

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the book that popularised the idea the Treaty of Versailles was disastrous, supporting the argument of Germany in the 1930s and feeding appeasement.

In an extended version of the programme that was broadcast, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential book John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1919 after he resigned in protest from his role at the Paris Peace Conference. There the victors of World War One were deciding the fate of the defeated, especially Germany and Austria-Hungary, and Keynes wanted the world to know his view that the economic consequences would be disastrous for all. Soon Germany used his book to support their claim that the Treaty was grossly unfair, a sentiment that fed into British appeasement in the 1930s and has since prompted debate over whether Keynes had only warned of disaster or somehow contributed to it.

With

Margaret MacMillan
Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford

Michael Cox
Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Founding Director of LSE IDEAS

And

Patricia Clavin
Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman and Elisabeth Glaser (eds.), The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Zachary D. Carter, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy and the Life of John Maynard Keynes (Random House, 2020)

Peter Clarke, Keynes: The Twentieth Century鈥檚 Most Influential Economist (Bloomsbury, 2009)

Patricia Clavin et al (eds.), Keynes鈥檚 Economic Consequences of the Peace after 100 Years: Polemics and Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

Patricia Clavin, 鈥楤ritain and the Making of Global Order after 1919: The Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture鈥 (Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 31:3, 2020)

Richard Davenport-Hines, Universal Man; The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes (William Collins, 2015)

R. F. Harrod, John Maynard Keynes (first published 1951; Pelican, 1972)

Jens Holscher and Matthias Klaes (eds), Keynes鈥檚 Economic Consequences of the Peace: A Reappraisal (Pickering & Chatto, 2014)

John Maynard Keynes (with an introduction by Michael Cox), The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: Six Months that Changed the World (John Murray Publishers, 2001)

Etienne Mantoux, The Carthaginian Peace or the Economic Consequences of Mr. Keynes (Oxford University Press, 1946)

D. E. Moggridge, Maynard Keynes: An Economist鈥檚 Biography (Routledge, 1992)

Alan Sharp, Versailles 1919: A Centennial Perspective (Haus Publishing Ltd, 2018)

Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946 (Pan Macmillan, 2004)

J眉rgen Tampke, A Perfidious Distortion of History: The Versailles Peace Treaty and the Success of the Nazis (Scribe UK, 2017)

Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (Penguin Books, 2015)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Thu 28 Sep 2023 21:30

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Contributors and related links

Contributors:

- n at the University of Oxford

- at the LSE

- at the University of Oxford

Related links:

-听鈥楻ecalling the consequences of Keynes鈥檚 鈥淓conomic Consequences of the Peace鈥濃 by Selwyn Cornish and John Hawkins - Inside Story (Dec 12, 2019)

- 鈥樷 by Michael Cox 鈥 Trium podcasts (9 July 2020)

- by John Hawkins - E-international relations (Dec 13, 2019)

- 鈥 by John Milton Cooper - H-Diplo: H-Net network on Diplomatic History and International Affairs (June 16, 2020)

- - The Marshall Library

-听Armistice 1918 鈥 91热爆 Radio 4 podcasts

Broadcasts

  • Thu 28 Sep 2023 09:00
  • Thu 28 Sep 2023 21:30

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