The Treaty of Versailles
A Reassessment after 75 Years

This book on the Treaty of Versailles constitutes a new synthesis of peace conference scholarship.

Manfred F. Boemeke (Edited by), Gerald D. Feldman (Edited by), Elisabeth Glaser (Edited by)

9780521628884, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 April 2006

688 pages, 6 b/w illus. 5 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm, 1 kg

"This is an altogether admirable purpose, and the essays in this volume are for the most part models of scholarship, their arguments backed up by voluminous footnotes based on government and private archives and the vast amount of published evidence that has become available over the past half century." Norman Rich, Central European History

This book on the Treaty of Versailles constitutes a new synthesis of peace conference scholarship. It illuminates events from the armistice in 1918 to the signing of the treaty in 1919, scrutinizing the motives, actions and constraints that informed decision-making by the French, American and English politicians who bore the principal responsibility for drafting the peace settlement. It also addresses German reactions to the draft treaty and the final agreement, as well as Germany's role in the immediate postwar period. The findings call attention to diverging peace aims within the American and Allied camps and underscore the degree to which the negotiators themselves considered the Versailles Treaty a work in progress. A detailed examination of the proceedings from the point of view of the main protagonists forms the core of the investigation.

Acknowledgments
Introduction Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman, and Elisabeth Glaser
Prologue: 1919–1945–1989 Ronald Steel
Part I. Peace Planning and the Actualities of the Armistice: 1. Germany's peace aims and the domestic and international constraints Klaus Schwabe
2. 'Had we known how bad things were in Germany, we might have got stiffer terms': Great Britain and the German Armistice David French
3. French war aims and peace planning David Stevenson
4. Wilsonian concepts and international realities at the end of the war Thomas J. Knock
5. A comment Alan Sharp
Part II. The Peacemakers and their Home Fronts: 6. Great Britain: the home front Erik Goldstein
7. The French peacemakers and their home front Georges-Henri Soutou
8. The American mission to negotiate peace: an historian looks back Lawrence E. Gelfand
9. Between Compiègne and Versailles: the Germans on the way from a misunderstood defeat to an unwanted peace Fritz Klein
10. A comment Antony Lentin
Part III. The Reconstruction of Europe and the Settlement of Accounts: 11. The Minorities question at the Paris Peace Conference: the Polish Minority Treaty, June 28, 1919 Carole Fink
12. The Rhineland question: West European Security at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 Stephen A. Schuker
13. The Polish question Piotr S. Wandycz
14. Smoke and mirrors: in smoke-filled rooms and the Galeries des Glaces Sally Marks
15. The making of the economic peace Elisabeth Glaser
16. The balance of payments question: Versailles and after Niall Ferguson
17. A comment Gerald D. Feldman
Part IV. The Legacy and Consequences of Versailles: 18. The Soviet Union and Versailles Jon Jacobson
19. Versailles and international diplomacy William R. Keylor
20. The League of Nations: toward a new appreciation of its history Antoine Fleury
21. A comment Diane B. Kunz
Part V. Antecedents and Aftermaths: Reflections on the War Guilt Question and the Settlement: 22. Max Weber and the Peace Treaty of Versailles Wolfgang J. Mommsen
23. The construction of the American interpretation: the pro-Treaty version William C. Widenor
24. British revisionism Michael Graham Fry
25. Woodrow Wilson's image of Germany, the war-guilt question, and the Treaty of Versailles Michael Graham Fry
26. A comment Gordon Martel
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]