The Economic Consequences of the Peace was written and published by John Maynard Keynes. After World War I, Keynes attended the Versailles Conference as a delegate of the British Treasury and argued for a much more generous peace. It was a best seller throughout the world and was critical in establishing a general opinion that the Versailles Treaty was a “Carthaginian peace.” It helped to consolidate American public opinion against the treaty and involvement in the League of Nations. The perception by much of the British public that Germany had been treated unfairly in turn was a crucial factor in public support for appeasement. The success of the book established Keynes’ reputation as a leading economist. When Keynes was a key player in establishing the Bretton Woods system in 1944, he remembered the lessons from Versailles as well as the Great Depression. The Marshall Plan after Second World War is a similar system to that proposed by Keynes in The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

Generally regarded as the most influential social science treatise of the 20th century, this work by legendary economist John Maynard Keynes is relevant reading even today for anyone who wants to understand international economics and foreign affairs. First published in 1919, The Economic Consequences of Peace created an intense and immediate controversy for its brazen criticism of world leaders and the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. Keynes argued that as a blueprint for peace, it was destined to create tension and conflict ahead…and history proved him right when world war broke out again within a generation. The popularity of this key work, and its place in history, helped cement Keynes’s status as one of the 20th century’s principal economists.