Democracies at the Turning Point : Britain, France and the End of the Postwar Order, 1928-1933

Winner of the Choice 1996 Outstanding Academic Book Award Between 1928 and 1933, the victorious Great War allies Britain and France abdicated responsibility for shaping the postwar European order. This book is about the failure of their leadership. With the Locarno agreements in place, British leaders refused to take on security problems beyond Germany's western frontier. France sought to organize the peace through reconciliation with Germany and European integration, but its increasingly defensive military posture curtailed its ability to lead Europe. In effect having abandoned the structures created after the Great War to maintain the peace, the former allies after 1933 would respond to the initiatives of the dictators.