“To bed, sick of life.” With these words, British diplomat Harold Nicolson ended the diary he kept at the Paris Peace Conference. This lecture will provide an introduction to the problems that Nicolson and many others saw in the Treaty of Versailles. Most people came away disillusioned, convinced that the treaty did not do enough to justify the sacrifices of the war or set a foundation for a future of peace. What lessons can we learn from the conference and the peace treaties it produced?

Presented during Modern Foundations: The Treaty of Versailles and American Philanthropy, a WWI Centennial Symposium at the Palace of Versailles on June 28, 2019.

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