ABSTRACT
By the time of the September 1938 Munich Agreement several residual representations dominated elite perceptions of public opinion. British policy makers saw a public hostile to fighting another war, suspicious of continental commitments, and equally unsympathetic to both communism and fascism. French decision makers perceived their public as ideologically polarized and infused with a pacifist sentiment bordering on defeatism. This chapter will first examine how such residual representations of opinion were formed and perpetuated in the period preceding Munich. It will then consider how reactive representations at the time of Munich either altered perceptions or merely reinforced the predominant residuals. Firstly, it is necessary to outline the pivotal residual representations. To do so, a brief explanation of the specific political contexts within which Chamberlain and Daladier were acting is required.
