Neville Chamberlain and Appeasement

Nick Smart scrutinises Chamberlain's foreign policy and the historiography of appeasement.

Chamberlain’s Centrality

Appeasement - the word can be found in any dictionary. It is a noun form of the verb to appease, which means to placate or pacify, and is a perfectly good word for the not ignoble, and certainly not un- Christian, desire to avoid conflict through resolving grievances. To appease is to seek peaceful solutions to problems, whether arising among individuals or in relations between states. In diplomatic terms, blessed, we might think, is the appeaser.

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