****A major new history of the British appeasement of the Third Reich in the lead up to World War II* * ** On a September day in 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off a plane and prepared to address the teeming crowd assembled on the airfield. Chamberlain had just returned from Munich, where he had averted the greatest crisis of the century. He had signed a peace agreement with Hitler, who could keep Czech territory but would never, he had sworn, take up arms against France and Great Britain. The cost had been high, but Chamberlain’s eleventh-hour gamble had secured peace for our time. Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland. In response, France and Britain declared war, and the deadliest conflict in human history began. *Appeasement* is a groundbreaking history of the disastrous years of indecision, treaty-making, and parliamentary infighting that enabled Hitler’s domination of Europe. Drawing on deep archival research and new sources, Tim Bouverie has created an unforgettable portrait of the ministers, dukes, and debutantes who, through their actions and inaction, shaped the country’s policy. * Appeasement* takes readers inside 10 Downing Street during the tenure of Chamberlain, the beloved PM determined to avert war at any cost. It takes us into the backrooms of Parliament, where an unusual coalition of liberals and conservatives (including the indomitable Winston Churchill) were the first to realize that the only real choice was war now or war later. And it takes us into the drawing rooms and dinner clubs of fading imperial Britain, where Hitler enjoyed surprising support among the ruling class and even members of the Royal Family. Both sweeping and intimate, *Appeasement* is not only eye-opening history but a timeless lesson in the challenges of standing against authoritarianism–and the calamity that results from failing.