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In Our Time

The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Archive Episode)

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In an extended version of the programme that was broadcast, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential book John Maynard Keynes wrote in 1919 after he resigned in protest from his role at the Paris Peace Conference. There the victors of World War One were deciding the fate of the defeated, especially Germany and Austria-Hungary, and Keynes wanted the world to know his view that the economic consequences would be disastrous for all. Soon Germany used his book to support their claim that the Treaty was grossly unfair, a sentiment that fed into British appeasement in the 1930s and has since prompted debate over whether Keynes had only warned of disaster or somehow contributed to it. With Margaret MacMillan Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford Michael Cox Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Founding Director of LSE IDEAS And Patricia Clavin Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman and Elisabeth Glaser (eds.), The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 Years (Cambridge University Press, 1998) Zachary D. Carter, The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy and the Life of John Maynard Keynes (Random House, 2020) Peter Clarke, Keynes: The Twentieth Century’s Most Influential Economist (Bloomsbury, 2009) Patricia Clavin et al (eds.), Keynes’s Economic Consequences of the Peace after 100 Years: Polemics and Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Patricia Clavin, ‘Britain and the Making of Global Order after 1919: The Ben Pimlott Memorial Lecture’ (Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 31:3, 2020) Richard Davenport-Hines, Universal Man; The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes (William Collins, 2015) R. F. Harrod, John Maynard Keynes (first published 1951; Pelican, 1972) Jens Holscher and Matthias Klaes (eds), Keynes’s Economic Consequences of the Peace: A Reappraisal (Pickering & Chatto, 2014) John Maynard Keynes (with an introduction by Michael Cox), The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: Six Months that Changed the World (John Murray Publishers, 2001) Etienne Mantoux, The Carthaginian Peace or the Economic Consequences of Mr. Keynes (Oxford University Press, 1946) D. E. Moggridge, Maynard Keynes: An Economist’s Biography (Routledge, 1992) Alan Sharp, Versailles 1919: A Centennial Perspective (Haus Publishing Ltd, 2018) Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946 (Pan Macmillan, 2004) Jürgen Tampke, A Perfidious Distortion of History: The Versailles Peace Treaty and the Success of the Nazis (Scribe UK, 2017) Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (Penguin Books, 2015) Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're dead to me.

0:05.0

No, no, that's the name of our podcast. Sorry.

0:08.7

And we're back for a brand new series.

0:11.1

Not only is it British history, it was a quill drop.

0:15.1

With more fun and facts from history without taking it too seriously.

0:19.8

Empress Matilda, what is she going to do now?

0:21.7

She decides to take back some of the jewels with her. I'm taking these as well. I'm going to come back

0:27.3

for Tuscany one day as well. You're dead to me. Again, not you. Name of the show. Listen first on

0:33.7

BBC Sounds. Hello, Simon here, the producer of In Our Time.

0:38.7

Since Melvin announced he stepped down from In Our Time after almost 27 years, the reaction's

0:44.4

been overwhelming and heartwarming, and thank you to everyone who's been in touch.

0:50.1

Before we return with new programmes and a new presenter, we're taking the time to celebrate Melvin's

0:56.3

outstanding work with some favourite episodes from our archive. Here's Melvin.

1:02.5

Hello, in 1919, John Maynard Keynes quit his job at the Paris Peace Conference, where the

1:07.9

victors of World War I were deciding the fate of the defeated.

1:11.5

Immediately, Keynes wrote the economic consequences of the peace, his warning of why, in his

1:17.1

view, the Treaty of Versailles would be disastrous. And soon Germany used this book as proof

1:22.5

that the treaty was grossly unfair, a sentiment that fed into British appeasment in the 1930s and a since-sporned

1:29.5

debate over whether Keynes had only warned of disaster or somehow contributed to it.

1:34.5

With me to discuss Keynes the economic consequences of the peace are Patricia Clavin, Professor

1:39.5

of Modern History at the University of Oxford, Michael Cox, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics

1:46.3

and founding director of the LSE Ideas.

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