Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War [Paperback]

Re-examines the controversial policy of appeasement. The text suggests that the mood of the age in British society served to support appeasement, by analyzing the cluster of military, strategic, imperial and economic forces which served to justify it. The book argues that, when Neville Chamberlain came to power, appeasement was part of a broad consensus in British society to avoid a second world war. It provides an interpretation of Chamberlain's conduct by showing how he used and abused the mood of the age to justify a selfish and ambitious policy which was idealogically prejudiced. Yet, when Hitler entered Prague in March 1939, the public mood changed, and Chamberlain found himself a prisoner of a new mood which forced him to make a tactical and half-hearted attempt to stand up to Hitler for which he had no enthusiasm.

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

1. Introduction: the changing debate

Part I Appeasement and British government 1918-1939

2. British foreign policy, 1918-1937

3. National defence

4. Chamberlain's new direction, May 1937-February 1938

5. The road to Munich, March-September 1938

6. The approach of war, October 1938-September 1939

Part II Appeasement and British society 1918-1939

7. Appeasers and the anti-appeasers

8. The mass media, public opinion and appeasement

9. Economic appeasement

10. Conclusion

Selected documents

Select bibliography

Inde

Frank McDonough is Senior Lecturer in Modern Political History at Liverpool John Moores University