Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Prologue: 1919-1945-1989
- PART ONE PEACE PLANNING AND THE ACTUALITIES OF THE ARMISTICE
- 1 Germany's Peace Aims and the Domestic and International Constraints
- 2 “Had We Known How Bad Things Were in Germany, We Might Have Got Stiffer Terms”: Great Britain and the German Armistice
- 3 French War Aims and Peace Planning
- 4 Wilsonian Concepts and International Realities at the End of the War
- 5 A Comment
- PART TWO THE PEACEMAKERS AND THEIR HOME FRONTS
- PART THREE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE AND THE SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS
- PART FOUR THE LEGACY AND CONSEQUENCES OF VERSAILLES
- PART FIVE ANTECEDENTS AND AFTERMATHS REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR-GUILT QUESTION AND THE SETTLEMENT
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - A Comment
from PART ONE - PEACE PLANNING AND THE ACTUALITIES OF THE ARMISTICE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Prologue: 1919-1945-1989
- PART ONE PEACE PLANNING AND THE ACTUALITIES OF THE ARMISTICE
- 1 Germany's Peace Aims and the Domestic and International Constraints
- 2 “Had We Known How Bad Things Were in Germany, We Might Have Got Stiffer Terms”: Great Britain and the German Armistice
- 3 French War Aims and Peace Planning
- 4 Wilsonian Concepts and International Realities at the End of the War
- 5 A Comment
- PART TWO THE PEACEMAKERS AND THEIR HOME FRONTS
- PART THREE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE AND THE SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS
- PART FOUR THE LEGACY AND CONSEQUENCES OF VERSAILLES
- PART FIVE ANTECEDENTS AND AFTERMATHS REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR-GUILT QUESTION AND THE SETTLEMENT
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The chapters of part I each provide interesting and valuable analyses. David Stevenson (chapter 3) offers an appraisal of French war aims and objectives from 1914 through to the end of the conference. Klaus Schwabe (chapter 1) begins his survey slightly later, with the early stirrings of the peace movement within Germany. He, too, follows the process through to what was a bitter end for the socialists and left-wing liberals who had passed the Peace Resolution in the Reichstag and whose belief in Woodrow Wilson's ideals was deep and genuine. David French (chapter 2) analyzes the British military and political desiderata, arguing that part of the objective for the British, as for Wilson, was an ideological one, as can be seen in their effort to bring about a decisive change in Germany's system of government - an aim also pursued by the Germans who opposed the regime and supported the Peace Resolution. Yet it was clear that Britain did not wish to see Germany destroyed if this meant it was merely to be replaced by a new danger to British interests. The possible candidates varied with the changing fortunes of war: first it was Russia, then France, and finally the United States. Like French, Thomas J. Knock (chapter 4) has been more literal in his interpretation, ending his discussion ofWilson's ideas and their domestic political fate more or less as the guns fell silent.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Treaty of VersaillesA Reassessment after 75 Years, pp. 131 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
- 2
- Cited by