Just the Facts: Book Discussion Recap from October 17th

Thirteen people came to the library to discuss the aftermath of the First World War. Many thanks to those who attended. Your presence, as always, was greatly appreciated.

Our book last night was Paris 1919: six months that changed the world by Margaret Macmillan. The end of World War I left Europe devastated by the collapse of three empires, millions of stateless people and the sheer destruction caused by the conflict. In January of 1919, the victorious Allies, led by American President Woodrow Wilson, French Premier Georges Clemenceau and the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, came to Paris to create a peace and a new world order. Wilson came with his list of fourteen points to create a new and better world. Clemenceau and Lloyd George came to protect and expand their empires and to extract huge reparations from Germany. Every nation and people came to Paris to get their share of the spoils and to press for control of their own destinies, always at the expense of someone else. Our conversation was spirited and wide ranging, covering sociology, dictatorships versus democracy, artificial borders, tribalism, racism and much more. We concluded that the peace conference at Versailles created problems that we’re still dealing with today.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 7:00 pm. The book to be discussed, The Big Roads: the untold story of the engineers, visionaries, and trailblazers who created the American superhighways by Earl Smith, is available at the Circulation Desk in the library. All are welcome.