KEYNES (John Maynard).
The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
The work that established Keynes’ reputation as a leading economist and public intellectual, described by Keynes’s biographer as ‘one of the most influential books of the twentieth century’ (Skidelsky, p. 384).
In 1915 Keynes took up an official position at Whitehall and served as the principal representative of the British Treasury at the Peace Conference in 1919. ‘He soon resigned, in protest against the terms imposed on the Central Powers, and rapidly produced The Economic Consequences of Peace, 1919. Even while the book was being written many of his prophecies came true and, in the light of subsequent history, the foresight of his conclusions would be uncanny did they not proceed so inevitably from his premises’ (PMM).
From the library of the Conservative politician Sir Leonard Ropner (1895-1977), with his engraved armorial bookplate to front pastedown.
