Britain, America and Rearmament in the 1930s

The Cost of Failure

C. Price

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN:
  9780333922927
• eBook ISBN:
  9781403919700
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Economics

This book is the first to challenge current orthodoxy that Chamberlain's appeasement policy before World War Two was justified by Britain's inability to pay for rearmament. The book shows that British war potential was actually massive, with a solid foundation in the existing Imperial economy. Using previously unconsidered and recently declassified documents from British and American archives the author demonstrates that the deliberate and political rejection of rearmament in the hope of eventual American support proved catastrophic for Britain.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Britain, America and Rearmament in the 1930s
• Contents
• The Fall of Sterling, 1938–39 and International Events
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 New Rules for an Old Game: the Shaping of Fourth Arm Concepts in a Fluid Environment, 1919–31
• 2 ‘On the Upgrade’: Britain’s Unwelcome Recovery, 1931–36
• 3 ‘The Destiny of Tomorrow’: a Transatlantic Alliance Forms against Ottawa, 1936
• 4 The Devil in the Detail: a Necessary Case for Economic Danger and the Formulation of the Fourth Arm Policy, 1937–38
• 5 Between Hitler and Wall Street: Undeclared War versus Business as Usual, March–October 1938
• 6 ‘It Seems like Insanity’: the Anglo-American Trade Agreement of 1938 and the Point of No Return
• 7 A ‘Maginot Line for the Pound’: Profligacy in Defence of a Bankrupt Policy, November 1938–January 1939
• 8 ‘Not a Damned Bit Good’: the Concealed Catastrophe, 1939
• Conclusion
• Notes and References
• Select Bibliography
• Index