Well, I was reading a lot there for a while before life intervened. Ah, well.
This book is awesome. Both the sheer scope of information and the way it's set up are great. She goes though the negotiations at the treaty of Versailles not chronologically but by region of the world, so there's an entire section on how the Middle East was affected, and how each country in Western Europe won or lost territory, Eastern Europe, Asia... It's really clear and easy to follow. And despite a cast of thousands I totally knew who everyone was and what country they were from. It's not as close to prose as the book on Genghis Khan or the Little Ice Age, but it's also 500 pages long.
There are also tons of maps. That is the #1 thing I want in my history books: maps! It is SO NICE to be able to reference what in hell the negotiators are talking about when they quibble over the boundaries of a country that I can only vaguely remember how to locate.
My only quibble is that she spends the last few pages arguing that World War II would have happened whether or not the treaty had been signed, and I wrote my college thesis on the opposite argument. So it's really only my quibble.
Grade: A
Originally posted 2009
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