Claim OwnershipEconomic Consequences of the Peace, The by John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)
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The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) was a best seller throughout the world, published by John Maynard Keynes. Keynes attended the Versailles Conference as a delegate of the British Treasury and argued for a much more generous peace with Germany. The book was critical in establishing a general worldwide opinion that the Versailles Treaty was a brutal and unfair peace towards Germany. It helped to consolidate American public opinion against the treaty and involvement in the League of Nations. The perception by much of the British public that Germany had been treated unfairly in turn was a crucial factor in public support for appeasement. The success of the book established Keynes' reputation as a leading economist especially on the left. (Summary by Graham McMillan)
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It's a shame that Keynes couldn't just write plainly. His obsession with unnecessarily oblique and snarled turns of phrase likely lessened his effect and appeal.
Keynes had a quintessentially British habit of over-complicating the most basic of ideas. He seemed incapable of writing "less", and instead wrote "hardly more". E.g., @10:46: "There was no European country... which did not do more than..." Good grief; was he paid by the word? Just write, "Every European country did more than..." I can see why Orwell was so infuriated by his countrymen's butchery of English, particularly in politics.
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