A Revision of the Treaty.: Being a Sequel to The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited,, 1922. First edition, first impression, of Keynes's second work on the question of German reparations, further advancing his influential arguments for a reduction in the payments demanded by the Treaty of Versailles. Following the success of Keynes's Economic Consequences of the Peace, the Sunday Times paid Keynes a large sum for five widely syndicated articles on the same subject, which appeared in August and September 1921. The present work, published in January 1922, collects and revises these articles; Keynes had originally proposed to his publisher a revision of Economic Consequences, but was persuaded that circumstances necessitated a new work. A Revision of the Treaty includes an analysis of the diplomatic grappling of the previous years, and questions the legality of France's repeated threats to occupy the Ruhr, threats they would make good the following year. Keynes is unsympathetic to all sides, including the German proposals. "The violence of the controversy aroused by these two books [Economic Consequences and Revision of the Treaty] is now difficult to appreciate. Even while they were being written many of his prophecies came true and, in the light of the subsequent history, the foresight of his conclusions would be uncanny did they not proceed so inevitably from his premises" (PMM). Keynes's view, that the Treaty of Versailles was fundamentally unjust and threatened the peace and security of Europe, remains widely shared to this day. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Ownership signature of one G. P. Thomas dated 1950 to front pastedown, Economists' Bookshop London stamp to same. Light rubbing at extremities, spine bright, endpapers a little toned. A very good copy. Fundaburk 9996; Mattioli 1840; Moggridge A 4.1.1; The New Palgrave III, pp. 19-39. Printing and the Mind of Man 423.