Author Description

"Lord D'Abernon, the first British ambassador to Berlin after the First World War, styled himself as 'An Ambassador of Peace' in his memoirs. His description has coloured the way in which historians have written about his activities for the last eighty years. It has generally been argued that D'Abernon was influential in both London and in Berlin and that he had a particular rapport with the German government. This analysis of D'Abernon's embassy paints a different picture. It suggests that he had a difficult relationship with the two principal Foreign Secretaries of the period, Lord Curzon and Austen Chamberlain, and that he overestimated the extent of his influence in Berlin. This was particularly evident during discussions about reparation payments and about international security. The study covers all of the main aspects of Anglo-German relations in the early 1920s and includes an assessment of the impact of the United States on European diplomacy in this period."--BOOK JACKET.