This is not a detailed biography of Clemenceau's whole life. It has a subtitle, 'The peace conferences of 1919 -1923 and their aftermath' and the author focuses on this period. Clemenceau lost the Presidential election in 1920 effectively drifting out of politics during 1920/21, so the 'focus' is even tighter.
The author has a clear agenda. His subject is a grand, sincere old man, a brave popular leader. He is badly misunderstood by history due to the evil JM Keynes. He always strove for the French nation and her protection. He predicted future German aggression but was let down in his attempt to forestall it by the fickle Allies, especially the shifty Lloyd George and the debt-obsessed, isolationist USA. At the time of the peak of his fame and power, he suffered the ultimate betrayal of electoral defeat to a nobody. Mr Watson provides ever more ammunition to prove that poor old France and Clemenceau are saints and all the rest sinners. No surprise that the most quoted 'reference' to justify many of these claims comes from Mr Watson's very own full-length biography of Clemenceau (available from all good booksellers).
When concentrating on a more balanced approch the author gives some excellent insights, for example ".. war debt overshadowed the Reparations negotiations like the ghost in Hamlet'.
The author has an overwhelming desire to attack Keynes for his personal, thumbnail description of Clemenceau in 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace'. In his attempt to discredit Keynes, Mr Watson is reduced to quoting the French Finance Minister Klotz as a 'source'. This is a man who spent two years in prison for passing dud cheques! He blandly states 'Germany could afford to pay' with minimal support for such a claim compared with the detailed analysis put forward by Keynes. These themes became so repetitious that it undermined the rest of the book and became counter-productive, thereby doing his subject a disservice.
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