Term paper on Paris Peace Conference (1919)

Paris Peace Conference (1919)
RESOURCE GUIDE

During the course of World War I, President Wilson called for ‘‘peace without victory” and toward that end formulated his Fourteen Points as a statement of war aims. Germany , hoping for a lenient peace based on those proposals, acceded to an armistice on November 11, 1918. However, the subsequent peace conference, which began in January

1919, ended with the Allies forcing Germany to sign the punitive Treaty of Versailles in June. Wilson accepted the harsh measures largely to ensure that the Allies would heed his call for a League of Nations . At home, however, his refusal to compromise with Republican senators, notably Henry Cabot Lodge, who demanded treaty reservations, and with Senate ‘‘irreconcilables,” who opposed the treaty in any form, doomed his handiwork. Wilson suffered an incapacitating stroke while campaigning for the treaty, which the Senate never ratified.

Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Discuss the origins of the League of Nations .

2. Was Wilson or Lodge more responsible for the Senate’s refusal to ratify the treaty?

3. Could U.S. participation in the league have prevented World War II?

4. Discuss the effects of Wilson ‘s stroke on foreign and domestic policy.

5. Compare the government crisis following Wilson ‘s stroke with that which followed President Eisenhower’s heart attack in September 1955.

Suggested Sources : See entries 11, 16, 17, and 67 for related items.

GENERAL SOURCES

Northedge, F. S. The League of Nations : Its Life and Times, 1920–1946 . New York : Holmes&Meier, 1986. Standard history of the league.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Ambrosius, Lloyd E. Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective . New York : Cambridge University Press, 1987. Contends that Wilson ‘s efforts had a lasting influence even though he failed to get the country to join the League of Nations .

Boemke, Manfred F., et al., eds. The Treaty of Versailles : 75 Years After . New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998. Papers from the proceedings of an international conference examining the treaty and its results.

House, Edward M., ed. What Really Happened at Paris : The Story of the Peace Conference, 1918–1919, by American Delegates . (1921). Reprint. Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1976. Collection of papers written by U.S. representatives describing the conference in all its particulars.

Knock, Thomas J. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order . New York : Oxford University Press, 1992. Highly regarded study of Wilson ‘s vision.

Lentin, A. Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson and the Guilt of Germany : An Essay in the Pre-history of Appeasement . Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1985. Critical examination of the conduct of the Peace Conference.

Levin, Norman G., comp. Woodrow Wilson and the Paris Peace Conference . 2d ed. Lexington , MA : Heath, 1972. Standard account of Wilson ‘s influence in Paris . Originally published in 1957 as Wilson at Versailles .

Lovin, Clifford R. A School for Diplomats: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 . Lanham , MD : University Press of America , 1997. Recent examination of the conference, with good insight into diplomacy.

Nielson, Jonathan M. American Historians in War and Peace: Patriotism, Diplomacy, and the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 . Dubuque , IA : Kendall/Hunt, 1994. Interesting examination of the political activities of historians in securing the peace.

Rogers, James T. Woodrow Wilson: Visionary for Peace . New York : Facts on File, 1997. A carefully researched work focusing on Wilson ‘s efforts in creating the League of Nations .

Walworth, Arthur. Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference . New York : Norton, 1986. Critical examination of the Wilson agenda at the conference.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Lodge, Henry Cabot. Early Memories . (1913). Reprint. New York : Arno , 1975. Autobiography of Wilson ‘s arch rival written six years before the conference. Provides insight into the life of the leisure class of the time.

Widenor, William C. Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy . Berkeley : University of California Press, 1980. Perceptive scholarly biography.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

Woodrow Wilson: Fight for a League of Nations . Washington , DC : Capital Communications, 1972. 25-minute examination of Wilson ‘s personal crusade for peace and a world government.

Woodrow Wilson: Peace and War and the Professor President . Chatsworth , CA : AIMS Multimedia, 1984. The career and achievements of the president, in a 23-minute narration by E. G. Marshall.

WORLD WIDE WEB

Schoenherr, Steve. The Versailles Treaty—June 28, 1919 . November 1995; updated February 1997. http://ac.acusd.edu/History/text/versaillestreaty/vercontents.htm/ Contains complete treaty with access by sections; also provides cartoons, maps, and links to other relevant sites.