1918 War and Peace

In 1918, renowned historian Gregor Dallas traces the transition from war to peace across Europe. In Berlin, the cabarets and beer halls are open while there is still shooting in the streets. In Paris, the peacemakers have assembled to draft the Treaty of Versailles and create the League of Nations. Washington is divided between those who want to open America to the world and those who would prefer the world to go away. A new theater season opens in London, where David Lloyd George holds new elections and reorganizes the War Cabinet and John Maynard Keynes worries about the debt. Moscow, still reeling from the Revolution of 1917, is a scene of desolation, but Lenin insists on setting up the Third International. The face of Europe was changed forever and the consequences of the peace in that autumn of 1918 would bear fruit twenty years later-when new horrors would await the next generation.

This is a magisterial and compelling study in which Gregor Dallas weaves politics, ideas, social life, fears, and aspirations into a superb reconstruction of one of the great turning points in twentieth-century history.