Title: Peacemaking 1919
Publisher: Constable & Co. Ltd.
Publication Date: 1933
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: 1st
vii, [list of illustrations], 378 printed pages. Frontispiece, 8 of 9 plates 1 text illustration. Times Book Club label and some pencil jottings on the rear pastedown endpaper. Signed and dated in ink "1934, Hugh Dalton" on front free endpaper. In pencil below is the word "Wagners" in the hand of Irene Wagner. Text block very slightly browned, particularly on the leading edge. 22.5 x 15 cm. Original blue cloth with gilt lettering on the spine. Spine, corners, hinges and edges very slightly rubbed. This volume contains the recollections of Nicolson, a British diplomat, who was a member of the Peace delegation of Great Britain at Paris. Nicolson wrote: "Given the atmosphere at the time, given the passions aroused in all democracies by four years of war, it would have been impossible even for supermen to devise a peace of moderation and righteousness." This was Hugh Dalton's personal copy. During WW2, Hugh Dalton was Minister for Economic Warfare when Harold Nicolson was, in the early days, at the Ministry of Information. Both published diaries and memoirs that overlapped in content. The Rt. Hon. Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, later Baron Dalton, (1887 1962) was a British Labour Party economist & politician. During WWI he served as a lieutenant in France and Italy, compiling 'With British Guns in Italy' as a record of his experiences. Although a staunch Labour party member, he shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 1930s, promoting rearmament against the German threat, and strongly opposing the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938. Dalton was a fervent supporter and close friend of Churchill during the crisis of 1940, strongly against any compromise peace as urged by Halifax and other conservatives. In his wartime coalition, after the Dunkirk evacuation, Churchill appointed Dalton Minister of Economic Warfare. Following Churchill's well-known instruction 'to set Europe ablaze' Dalton founded the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and was subsequently a co-founder of the Political Warfare Executive (PWE). After the surprise Labour victory in 1945 Dalton was seen (alongside Attlee, Bevin, Morrison and Cripps) as one of the 'big five' of the new administration and served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945-7 (when he nationalised the Bank of England). In 1948 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and in 1950 Minister of Town and Country Planning. He retired from government after the general election of 1951 and was created a life peer as Baron Dalton on 1960. Early items signed by Dalton are now uncommon. His papers and diaries are held at the London School of Economics. PROVENANCE: Irene Wagner, senior Labour Party archivist, historian and former Party Chief Librarian. She helped found the International Association of Labour History Institutions. Irene was also a key supporter of the People s History Museum in Manchester. During the 2nd World War Irene worked at Woburn Abbey, in the political intelligence department of the Foreign Office, helping the Special Operations Executive distribute propaganda over Germany.Impeccable provenance: from her personal library that I purchased in 2016 from her Grand-daughter at Irene's Bloomsbury flat where she had lived for 72 years. Copies of the 1st edition are becoming less common and this copy has a significant association with a key politician, and a key connection with a notable member of the Special Operations Executive. Bookseller Inventory # 4239