Lloyd George and the lost peace: from Versailles to Hitler, 1919-1940

Abstract

This lively and original book re-evaluates Lloyd George's part, crucial but enigmatic, in the `lost peace' of Versailles. Each chapter examines a separate episode between 1919 and 1940. The first chapters review Lloyd George's protean role at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, his strategy of `making Germany pay' and the part played in it by Lord Cunliffe, ex-Governor of the Bank of England; the causes and consequences of Lloyd George's abortive guarantee treaty to France; and the emergence at the conference of the phenomenon of `Appeasement' -the `worm in the bud'. The final chapters reassess the two episodes commonly considered most damaging to Lloyd George's reputation: his visit to Hitler in 1936 and his bids to halt World War II after the fall of Poland. The author sees Lloyd George as both mercurial and consistent: brilliant and volatile in method, but constant in furthering Britain's interests through his personal diplomacy