Appeasement : Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the road to war
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 451-463) and index.

On a September day in 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off a plane and prepared to address the teeming crowd assembled on the airfield. Chamberlain had just returned from Munich, where he had averted the greatest crisis of the century. He had signed a peace agreement with Hitler, who could keep Czech territory but would never, he had sworn, take up arms against France and Great Britain. The cost had been high, but Chamberlain's eleventh-hour gamble had secured "peace for our time." Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland. In response, France and Britain declared war, and the deadliest conflict in human history began. Appeasement is a groundbreaking history of the disastrous years of indecision, treaty-making, and parliamentary infighting that enabled Hitler's domination of Europe. Drawing on deep archival research and new sources, Tim Bouverie has created an unforgettable portrait of the ministers, dukes, and debutantes who, through their actions and inaction, shaped the country's policy.