Title

Paris 1919 : six months that changed the world

Description

Between January and July 1919, after "the war to end all wars," men and women from around the world converged on Paris to shape the peace. Center stage was an American president, Woodrow Wilson, who with his Fourteen Points seemed to promise to so many people the fulfillment of their dreams. Stern, intransigent, impatient when it came to security concerns and idealistic in his dream of a League of Nations that would resolve all future conflict peacefully, Wilson is only one of the characters who fill the pages of this book. David Lloyd George, the British prime minister, brought Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes. Lawrence of Arabia joined the Arab delegation. Ho Chi Minh, a kitchen assistant at the Ritz, submitted a petition for an independent Vietnam. For six months, Paris was effectively the center of the world as the peacemakers carved up bankrupt empires and created new countries. This book brings to life the personalities, ideals, and prejudices of the men who shaped the settlement. They pushed Russia to the sidelines, alienated China, and dismissed the Arabs. They struggled with the problems of Kosovo, of the Kurds, and of a homeland for the Jews. The peacemakers, so it has been said, failed dismally; above all they failed to prevent another war. Margaret MacMillan argues that they have unfairly been made the scapegoats for the mistakes of those who came later. She refutes received ideas about the path from Versailles to World War II and debunks the widely accepted notion that reparations imposed on the Germans were in large part responsible for the Second World War.

Identifier

1062024

375508260

Creator

MacMillan, Margaret

Format

1st U.S. ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

2002

Program air date: December 29, 2002

Publisher

Random House

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Front and back endpapers include notes regarding the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the relationship between the Big Four - the representatives of France, Britain, Italy, and the U.S. - at the Peace Treaty negotiations in Versailles, particularly the tensions between Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George, the significance of the League of Nations, and the issue of reparation payments. Other notes refer to the 'German issue' - How to punish it? - and various negotiations about dividing up conquered land among the victors - Who gets what? -, e.g. the secret 'London Treaty' (1915) which promised large parts of Slovenia and the Northern part of the coast of Dalmatia to Italy, the 'Sykes-Picot Agreement', which looked at ways to divide up Arab speaking countries, the 'Balfour Declaration', which promised a homeland to Jews, and the question of Palestine, which became a British mandate in 1920. It is noted that the author rejects the notion that the Treaty of Versailles lead to WWII. - These questions, statements and quotes are also part of the notes: How to punish Germany? - What role did [the] League of Nations and 14 points play? - "Peacemakers took too long and got it wrong." - How important was understanding English? - What role did Gabriele D'Annunzio play? Who was he? - What was the relationship between Wilson / Lansing and House? - What were the big disagreements among Wilson, Clemenceau, and Lloyd George? - Who started the war? - What was the special amendment of the Monroe Doctrine in the covenant of the League? -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- Example: p. 487: "As he left Paris, on June 28, Wilson said to his wife, "Well, little girl, it is finished, and, as no one is satisfied, it makes me hope we have made a just peace; but it is all in the lap of the gods."

Subject

"Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924."

"Treaty of Versailles (1919)"

"World War, 1914-1918--Peace."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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