The Great War is a collection of seven original essays and three critical comments by senior scholars dealing with the greatest conflict in modern history to its time - the 1914-18 World War. The Great War is edited by the distinguished historian of the First World War, R.J.Q.Adams.

In this book historian R.J.Q. Adams examines the policy of appeasement as practiced by British Governments in the inter-war years - a programme widely praised in its day and frequently condemned as wrong-headed and even wicked ever since. In this thoroughly accessible work, he reveals the motivations and goals of the men who practiced appeasement as well as of those who opposed it, and makes clear the road to Munich - and to war.

The goal of the British governments in the interwar period was balance among the European great powers--balance which would restore peace as well as a British prosperity based once again upon international trade. In the end, these grim years brought only economic depression and the challenge posed by the fascist dictatorships in Germany and Italy. In British Politics and Foreign Policy in the Age of Appeasement, 1935-39, historian R.J.Q. Adams examines the policy of appeasement--so frequently praised as realistic and statesmanlike in its day and commonly condemned as wrong-headed and...