David Lloyd George: Great Britain (Makers of the Modern World) - Hardcover

‘What an intellectual feast Alan Sharp and his collaborators have served us with this comprehensive treatment of the peace conferences that ended the Great War! What makes this series an important contribution to the historical literature are the distinguished roster of contributors, the careful attention devoted to persons and events not only in Europe and America but also in the non-Western world, and the illuminating demonstration of how this critical turning point in modern world history shaped the rest of the twentieth century and beyond.’ William R. Keylor Professor of History and International Relations Director, International History Institute, Boston University ‘As a glance at the table of contents shows, there are always more and interesting things to be said on the perennially fascinating question of the Paris Peace Conference. Sadly, too, there is much that is still relevant for our own troubled world.’ Margaret Macmillan Warden, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, author of ‘Peacemakers’ (John Murray, 2001)

David Lloyd George (1863-1945). The end of the First World War saw Britain at the height of its power. Its fleet and air force were the largest in the world. Its armies had triumphed in the Middle East and spearheaded the final attacks in Western Europe that had driven the defeated Germans to seek an armistice. Britain now had to translate this military victory into the achievement of its war aims and future security and prosperity. Its main negotiator at the forthcoming peace conference would be its prime minister, the ebullient and enigmatic David Lloyd George, the ‘Welsh Wizard’ – ‘the man who had won the war’. Lloyd George’s energy had maintained the war effort through the dark days of 1917 and early 1918, but now he anticipated, with relish, the prospect of winning the peace. Few were better equipped. He was a skilled and accomplished negotiator with the knack of reconciling the apparently irreconcilable. His admirers, of whom there were many, pointed to his brilliant and agile mind, his rapid grasp of complex questions and his powers of persuasion. His critics, who were also numerous, distrusted his sleight of hand, fleetness of foot and, frankly, his word. His six months in Paris in 1919, as he pitted his wits against formidable world leaders like Woodrow Wilson and Georges Clemenceau, were among the most enjoyable but exhausting of his life. This study investigates the extent to which Lloyd George succeeded in his aims and evaluates the immediate and longer-term results of his negotiations for Britain.