The Spoils of War
The Politics, Economics, and Diplomacy of Reparations 1918-1932
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:3rd Jan '91
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This is the first comprehensive account of the dispute over who should `pay' for the First World War - a dispute which poisoned international relations, destabilized the world's financial system, and encouraged the rise of the Nazis in the 1920s and 1930s. Dr Kent's systematic analysis of the origins and persistence of the financial demands made upon Germany after the war sheds new light on the `beggar-thy-neighbour' tendencies of liberal democracies in times of financial crisis. He argues that the victors had no coherent policy of eliminating Germany as a commercial or strategic threat. The indemnity illusion was fostered by British, French, and American statesmen to conceal the financial implications of the war and to defuse radical agitation for heavy taxation.
`impeccably informed ... his excellent study is written with verve, clearly organized, set into context of the extensive debate on the issue which he radically recasts' L. L. Farrar, History
`Bruce Kent's scholarship is impressive: he has consulted a wide range of sources in France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States, and his conclusions ... deserve respect.' Times Literary Supplement
ISBN: 9780198202226
Dimensions: 215mm x 137mm x 27mm
Weight: 616g
480 pages