Skip to main content

Primary sourceBook1919

The Economic Consequences of the Peace

John Maynard Keynes · 1919

A 1919 book by economist John Maynard Keynes criticising the Treaty of Versailles, including his portrayal of President Wilson's role at the peace talks.

Keynes, who attended the conference, portrays Clemenceau as driven by a single-minded concern for France's interests.

Ask Georges Clemenceau about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Title page of The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. Published New York by Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. Cream-colored page with a small publisher's device.
John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919. Title page of the American edition, 1920.

About this source

What it is

This book was written by British economist John Maynard Keynes in 1919, after he resigned in protest from his role as a British Treasury delegate at the Paris Peace Conference. In it, Keynes argues the treaty's terms, including reparations, would ruin Europe's economy.

Why it matters

Keynes attended the conference and witnessed the negotiations between leaders including Woodrow Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George. His book shaped public opinion against the treaty and against the League of Nations, portraying Wilson as outmanoeuvred by more experienced European negotiators. It became hugely influential, later linked by historians to British support for appeasement, and it built Keynes' reputation as a major economist.

Look closer

  • Why might someone who witnessed the negotiations have written this so soon afterward?
  • How might Keynes's own frustration with the conference have shaped his portrayal of Wilson?
  • What does the book's popularity suggest about public feeling toward the treaty?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Georges Clemenceau on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Georges Clemenceau sources

Meet the AI Georges Clemenceau →
Front cover of a printed booklet of the Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, signed at Versailles June 28th, 1919, with a royal crest at the bottom and London publisher details. Tan cover with grey spine.Document

Primary source

Treaty of Versailles

28 June 1919

Black-and-white photograph of four men in dark suits standing on a stone step before a doorway. Left: a man with white hair talking with a man in a suit with a mustache. Right of them: a mustached older man with a bow tie, and a man with white hair at the far right. A Signal Corps stamp is visible at lower left.Photograph

Primary source

The Big Four at the Paris Peace Conference

Edward N. Jackson · 27 May 1919

Painting of a formal assembly in an ornate gilded hall with tall arched windows. Men in dark suits and some in military uniform sit and stand around a long table in the foreground, with a seated figure in the lower center.Painting

Primary source

The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28 June 1919

William Orpen · 1919

Front page of the newspaper L'Aurore, Thursday 13 January 1898, with the large headline J'Accuse...! Lettre au Président de la République, par Émile Zola. Dense columns of printed text fill the page.Newspaper article

Primary source

J'accuse…!

Émile Zola · 13 January 1898

Painting of a bald man with a dark handlebar mustache, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and dark bow tie, with arms folded against a muted grey-brown background. Loose, sketchy brushwork.Painting

Primary source

Portrait of Georges Clemenceau

Édouard Manet · 1879-1880

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Georges Clemenceau now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions