The Versailles Treaty and its Legacy
The Failure of the Wilsonian Vision

The story of failed diplomacy during the peacemaking process at Versailles and the path that led to World War II.

Norman A. Graebner (Author), Edward M. Bennett (Author)

9781107647480, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 March 2014

286 pages
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

"It should be essential reading for anyone pursuing a career in diplomatic or national security affairs. Highly recommended." -Choice

This study, a realist interpretation of the long diplomatic record that produced the coming of World War II in 1939, is a critique of the Paris Peace Conference and reflects the judgment shared by many who left the Conference in 1919 in disgust amid predictions of future war. The critique is a rejection of the idea of collective security, which Woodrow Wilson and many others believed was a panacea, but which was also condemned as early as 1915. This book delivers a powerful lesson in treaty-making and rejects the supposition that treaties, once made, are unchangeable, whatever their faults.

1. The international order on trial
2. The road to Paris
3. Versailles: a study in arrogance
4. The retreat to utopia
5. Manchuria and the triumph of non-recognition
6. The rise of Hitler
7. Challenge of the dictators
8. The illusive response
9. Munich: the continuing escape from reality
10. The road to Prague
11. The Soviet quest for collective security
12. The coming of war.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Second World War [HBWQ], First World War [HBWN], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]