Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World – Margaret MacMilllan
As someone such as myself who loves to read about history, this massive offering by Margaret MacMillan richly satisfied my cravings. First, the book itself is wonderful and detailed. Second, even though I’ve easily read 8-10 books already about World War I, it was still an enrapturing read where I was still able to learn many things. And third, probably most importantly, I was exposed to a wealth of knowledge about many of the minor countries and characters that I knew nothing about prior to reading. Most of those chapters detailing said events in history could have their own self-standing volumes and, since they probably do, only made someone such as myself want to pick up these history books and digest more.
At the end of the great war and short-lived relief, the question then becomes “what next”? How do the spoils get divided? Do we punish the losers? Do boundaries and geographies simply go back to the way they were before the calamity began? Should some victorious countries get more booty since they sacrificed more men and more material?
Ironically, I’m somewhat reminded of the plot of the farcical film “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World”. No matter how hard all of the protagonists decide the split up the eventual reward, everyone is basically only looking out for themselves. Greed is a selfish monster. We meet the ‘Big Four’ who represent some of the victorious allies. There’s Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of England, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy. To be honest, I was never quite sure why Italy was considered for inclusion within this powerful fraternity. They didn’t seem to be a particularly relevant part of the alliance, and as the narrative progresses, Orlando and Italy seem to be somewhat demoted to minor characters in the proceedings.
Which, I guess, leaves the “Big 3”. Author Margaret MacMillan devotes ample and necessary page space to the backgrounds, the history, and the motivations of each of these main players. Let’s just say that the reader is left with an undesirable feeling for all three. Altruism is the last thing any of them want, and it’s clear that this “new world” is going to have to have an arbitrary leader, and all three push for their respective country to have the main part of this still unwritten global play.
This book could have been about 1/3 the length that it was, but fortunately the author realizes that there are too many important stories to tell about too many countries, so most of the minor players get entire chapters. This is a good thing, despite the thickness of the overall finished product. There is so much to learn about the many countries that participated. My guess is that those who are somewhat familiar with “The War to End All Wars” still know very little about the doomed Ottoman Empire, the conflict between Japan and China (yes, they were in the war too), or about the role of such places like Rumania (now ‘Romania’). Ask yourself this: do you think many people would have ever known who T.E. Lawrence was had it not been for the 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia”? Of course, now that the film is more than sixty years old, many younger people wouldn’t know anyway. Never mind.
One huge benefit to this book is that the beginning contains a wide variety of maps of Europe and Asia both pre-war and post-war. Never has a book needed this more than this one. A huge part of the constant bickering at this peace conference revolves around settling disputes of territorial boundaries. If I’m completely honest, it was a bit much after a while. Once the chapter about the particular country would bleed into the meticulous details of what part of what country would change after the fighting, my head would start to spin. It was the least interesting aspect of this book, and it is covered in quite a lot of detail. Yes, it’s important and everything, just not very interesting; which is why the maps really do help.
What’s (incredibly) more interesting is the stories of the important people, the places, the mood of the country before the war, why they fought on the side they did, and how they attempted to pick up the pieces once the guns stopped. 1919 (the year, not the book) really was a huge mess, and most would argue that it never was cleaned up the way it should have been. This would lead to the inevitable second world war a mere two decades later and, most would argue, still has horrible repercussions today.
The one thing about this book that surprised me was the lack (what I thought) of detail about the reparations placed on the shoulders of the big loser, Germany. History has shown us that Germany was punished far too harshly for its part of the conflict, and that aspect is definitely covered in this book, it just didn’t seem like there was an incredible amount of detail that was focused on this particular aspect. Such details would probably demand its own book, and I’m sure there have been many that have been written. I didn’t see this lack of detail as a disappointment, yet rather a surprise.
Overall this was a wonderful book on so many levels. It sadly makes you wonder if human nature can ever evolve to where powerful countries can every become less competitive and more caring. It seems as though in order to secure one’s place on the global map, one has to push their way forward in terms of strength, otherwise, the country will never get a proper seat at the negotiations table. In other words, kill or be killed.
A fascinating, yet somewhat sad, look at human nature and how the inner demons of mankind led to one of the most globally destructive events in human history.
