Six Months That Changed the World – Paris 1919
Margaret MacMillan
Another year, another great work of history. When you’ve finished this rich and thoughtful book, you’re left with one thought: absolute power may or may not corrupt, but it certainly befuddles those who have it. MacMillan focuses on the Paris Peace Conference following World War I, in which Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson gathered together for six months and tried to patch together a world that had been torn asunder. At times, you can almost feel the claustrophobia in the room. They had almost no reliable information about what was happening in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Asia or anywhere else. and their decisions about almost every part of the globe came back to the haunt the world over the next ninety years. This is a magnificent, sobering book.