< quote from the review in the NYT> "From January to June 1919, the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and the United States met in Paris to decide the outcome of the war they had just won against the Central Powers. They faced a Herculean task. In the course of the Great War of 1914-18, four old multinational empires had fallen: the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman. The fate of hundreds of millions of people, from Strasbourg to Baghdad, from Hamburg to Aqaba, was unclear. Previous peace conferences -- including the best known, the Congress convened in Vienna in 1815 to reorder Europe after the defeat of Napoleon -- had confined themselves to adjusting the fates of dynasties and states. The peacemakers of 1919 had also to pay attention to principles, promises, public opinion and a fast-changing and unstable political scene. Russia was in revolution and much of central Europe seemed ready to follow suit. " <quote>
This is the book I am reading now. Provides a perspecitive on the world today that we are still struggling with.
Very nice site. Will sure visit again.